Greater Houston Weekly - Top Of The Week
‘Thrive’ offers view from 3 generations
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| In “Path for Pain,” Laura Bennett digitally overlays old glass negatives of early century dames with anatomical diagrams and illustrations. |
By Virginia Billeaud Anderson
According to statistics, us old broads are now living and remaining active into our 90s. Longevity is altering the way we think about time.
DiverseWorks invited three generations of women artists, ages 20- something to 70-something, to address the theme of “time.“ The result is “Thrive,” an exhibition on view through Jan. 20. It is worth a trip to the warehouse district to see how 16 women, all biggies in Houston’s artsy scene, deal artistically with this subject. Reflections through painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation offer the bosomy redaction that time is an opportunistic path to self-knowing and purposefulness.
There’s some genius in using vintage photography to represent time. Grainy dark tone portraiture may seem ghostly and unfamiliar, yet it weirdly links us back to ourselves through continuity. In “Path for Pain,” Laura Bennett digitally overlays old glass negatives of early century dames with anatomical diagrams and illustrations. The text and charts modifying the photographic figures penetrate to the emotional.
Though Bennett’s startling imagery summons an internal state, the artist and university professor proclaims interest in time’s effect on the body.
“As a mother of nine,” she stated, “I tend to view the woman’s body as a type of map. Within it and upon it lies the evidence of a life lived. We’re marked like a canvas, chipped like bark, polished like ivory and stretched like clay. And yet we thrive.”
Mary Jenewein approaches time with a major hissy fit. Her series “8 Degrees of Wrong” asserts, in our present time, some women are enslaved. Eight wall-mounted boxes present small dolls composed into subjugation narratives such as being chained to a worktable in a fabric filled sweatshop. The male figures in these tableaux represent jailors, a creepy example being the turbaned dude overseeing rug weavers. Veils and headscarves should not comfort you into thinking this stuff relates only to far away odious places. The handcuffed figure being water boarded references the US. It is the brothel scene, though, that is most throat gripping. Tarted-up figures in dresses and high heels, slumped slightly as if drugged, are chained to chairs. One lies on a bed with a newborn. The washbowl and towel on a nearby table is grotesque.
Jenewein confirms her outrage. “An artist has something stuck in her craw!” she said. “I think that’s what Clifford Odets meant when he talked about wanting his art to shoot bullets. I want that too. My boxes are the bullets stuck in my craw.”
Kelli Vance meditates on personal time with “You Take It Away” and “And For a Split Second I Feel Nothing,” splendidly rendered oil paintings that frame small moments in a couple’s relationship. There is plenty room for interpretation, but the woman’s leg bruise darkens the content. Also distilled is time’s sub theme of identity. Is she shaving her pubic hair for herself or to satisfy his sex kittenish expectations about beauty?
Some penetrate time through autobiographical musings. Toby Topek’s “Untitled” seems to be a self-portrait of travel experiences juiced up with motifs symbolizing life’s interconnectedness. Nearly 100 wall-mounted digital photos of a tide flooded bay area are over laid with images of fishing nets and burka draped women performing harvest work. The scenes conjuring female labor and productivity make the Koran reading Taliban coot seem inanely goatish. Amphorae and embroidery cite fecundity and creativity, while scenes of natural beauty are woven throughout this lovely piece.
Rachel Hecker’s very cool “Japa Mala” denotes meditative moments in time. Hecker re-created in monumental size her wooden Hindu prayer beads, used for repetitive mantra recitation. This big talisman is a soulful evocation of the enlightenment that can come through time.
I am regretting big time not having enough space to discuss Elia Arce, Ellen Berman, Suzanne Bloom, Joanne Brigham, Kathy Hall, Roberta Harris, Lauren Kelley, Charles Mary Kubricht, Lynn Randolph, Debra Rueb and Dee Wolff. The women in this exhibition are art world and academic stars. Their credentials are heavy with National Endowment for the Arts and comparable award status. Several scored Whitney Museum and Menil exhibition tenure. Many hold university positions. Curated by Mary Ross Taylor. Do not miss this exhibition.
“Thrive”
DiverseWorks invited three generations of women artists, ages 20-something to 70-something, to address the theme of “time.“ The result is “Thrive,” an exhibition on view through Jan. 20. Visit www.diverseworks.org for more information.
DiverseWorks invited three generations of women artists, ages 20- something to 70-something, to address the theme of “time.“ The result is “Thrive,” an exhibition on view through Jan. 20. It is worth a trip to the warehouse district to see how 16 women, all biggies in Houston’s artsy scene, deal artistically with this subject. Reflections through painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation offer the bosomy redaction that time is an opportunistic path to self-knowing and purposefulness.
There’s some genius in using vintage photography to represent time. Grainy dark tone portraiture may seem ghostly and unfamiliar, yet it weirdly links us back to ourselves through continuity. In “Path for Pain,” Laura Bennett digitally overlays old glass negatives of early century dames with anatomical diagrams and illustrations. The text and charts modifying the photographic figures penetrate to the emotional.
Though Bennett’s startling imagery summons an internal state, the artist and university professor proclaims interest in time’s effect on the body.
“As a mother of nine,” she stated, “I tend to view the woman’s body as a type of map. Within it and upon it lies the evidence of a life lived. We’re marked like a canvas, chipped like bark, polished like ivory and stretched like clay. And yet we thrive.”
Mary Jenewein approaches time with a major hissy fit. Her series “8 Degrees of Wrong” asserts, in our present time, some women are enslaved. Eight wall-mounted boxes present small dolls composed into subjugation narratives such as being chained to a worktable in a fabric filled sweatshop. The male figures in these tableaux represent jailors, a creepy example being the turbaned dude overseeing rug weavers. Veils and headscarves should not comfort you into thinking this stuff relates only to far away odious places. The handcuffed figure being water boarded references the US. It is the brothel scene, though, that is most throat gripping. Tarted-up figures in dresses and high heels, slumped slightly as if drugged, are chained to chairs. One lies on a bed with a newborn. The washbowl and towel on a nearby table is grotesque.
Jenewein confirms her outrage. “An artist has something stuck in her craw!” she said. “I think that’s what Clifford Odets meant when he talked about wanting his art to shoot bullets. I want that too. My boxes are the bullets stuck in my craw.”
Kelli Vance meditates on personal time with “You Take It Away” and “And For a Split Second I Feel Nothing,” splendidly rendered oil paintings that frame small moments in a couple’s relationship. There is plenty room for interpretation, but the woman’s leg bruise darkens the content. Also distilled is time’s sub theme of identity. Is she shaving her pubic hair for herself or to satisfy his sex kittenish expectations about beauty?
Some penetrate time through autobiographical musings. Toby Topek’s “Untitled” seems to be a self-portrait of travel experiences juiced up with motifs symbolizing life’s interconnectedness. Nearly 100 wall-mounted digital photos of a tide flooded bay area are over laid with images of fishing nets and burka draped women performing harvest work. The scenes conjuring female labor and productivity make the Koran reading Taliban coot seem inanely goatish. Amphorae and embroidery cite fecundity and creativity, while scenes of natural beauty are woven throughout this lovely piece.
Rachel Hecker’s very cool “Japa Mala” denotes meditative moments in time. Hecker re-created in monumental size her wooden Hindu prayer beads, used for repetitive mantra recitation. This big talisman is a soulful evocation of the enlightenment that can come through time.
I am regretting big time not having enough space to discuss Elia Arce, Ellen Berman, Suzanne Bloom, Joanne Brigham, Kathy Hall, Roberta Harris, Lauren Kelley, Charles Mary Kubricht, Lynn Randolph, Debra Rueb and Dee Wolff. The women in this exhibition are art world and academic stars. Their credentials are heavy with National Endowment for the Arts and comparable award status. Several scored Whitney Museum and Menil exhibition tenure. Many hold university positions. Curated by Mary Ross Taylor. Do not miss this exhibition.
“Thrive”
DiverseWorks invited three generations of women artists, ages 20-something to 70-something, to address the theme of “time.“ The result is “Thrive,” an exhibition on view through Jan. 20. Visit www.diverseworks.org for more information.
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