Work in this exhibit is comprised of rich painting and textile-based work, sound
sculptures and installations, drawing and three-dimensional installations. The artists in this exhibit all carry a material handling into the studio and this surmises the strength and power of their creations: that they be made of the hand.
“Being a Dad is hard work. I want to show all that work. Mostly the violent and tender moments because those are the ones that remain with me. As a father my role is both complicated and beautiful and I use the cowl and tartan as a method to express this American Father. I never grew up in the ‘hood but I have seen people wear them. The antagonist wears a cowl because I want to connect the religiosity to the violence in a sincere way. The violence of the Father can be explicit, oblique or complicit. And the tartan connects the Father to both European roots of the Scottish Klan and those of the Middle East, Asia and North Africa, where the Check originated.”
Today is a place of uncertainty but there is hope, struggle and resistance. In the face of challenges large and small, institutional and interpersonal, it is with will and courage we find ways to live our best lives and uplift others on this shared journey with empathy and compassion.
Indices of Being asks the question: in a time of patriarchal injustice, in a time of global warming and debate on climate change; native battles for water and land, atrocities in immigration policy; in a time of voter suppression, #Me Too, Black Lives Matter, Queer suppression and anti-Trans legislation, and, with gender biases in some of our finest Museums and gathering spaces of culture and intellect, what does it mean to be, in this most critical and vital moment from a woman’s perspective?
This exhibit brings together three artists who have connected online during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This installation is comprised of work from Halcyon, Patti Kilroy and Axis Gallery member, Tavarus Blackmon.
Through expressive works on canvas, conceptual painting in the expanded field and sound art work, this experience is influenced by Art History and the use of the floral, still life or dry flowers, in art. From what was a formal exercise in representation emerges a contemporary exhibition of active picture planes, playful, non-paintings and expressive sound. What does such an image mean in our culture today, gripped by a deadly virus and demands for social justice? Flor Mort, is concerned with presence, immediacy and the act of play. And, how we may be better to observe the stillness we can inhabit through a practice and the lived experience.
Merriam-Webster defines Resist as the ability “to withstand the force or effect of.” In today’s society of American Culture it can be argued that there are many opportunities to rebuff an undesirable force. And though there is no firm consensus on this issue, though across the globe there is a state of survey and activity, where previous ways of thinking are being processed and re-imagined, here at home there is fewer consensus on basic and fundamental issues.
The artists in this exhibition have powerful, nuanced and emergent voices. In a market where there are many – though complicated – moments to resist an exerting force they are here, cultivating a space of identity, solidarity and grace. Recently, in noting forces in the Art World and methods on how to “withstand,” activists and artists have protested the role of Warren B. Kanders as the Whitney Museum of Art’s (NY), Board Vice Chairman. They cited his defense manufacturing company, Safariland, and its production of tear-gas canisters used against asylum seekers about the U.S./Mexico border. This may have influenced his resignation.
And with this work, Resistant Gesture is full of intention, discovery and affirmation, similar to currents vibrating nationally and globally in the effort to withstand a force or effect. The artists articulate keen ideas with material fluency, visual resonance and cultural reflection. This is a most profound expression of what is both sensitive and assertive, and how shifts in thinking present the critical vision in the position of authorship.
The Resistant Gesture encompasses many forms, media and methods of demarcation. It is by a subtle stroke, a tender indication or by placing roles of authority in humorous indignation, that new voices precede new ways of thinking. And, how the act of making itself becomes oppositional to an ordinary experience.