Drawn to the Shadows: Chasing Ghosts VI artists reveal the allure of the unknown
The theme of Chasing Ghosts floats into Verum Ultimum with the falling leaves and the warm glow of jack-o-lanterns each year. Attracting the most mysterious work of the entire season. Perhaps the artists (that are drawn to this theme) listen to the unsaid things, perhaps they see a link between grief and hope, or maybe they are simply drawn to exploring memory. Whatever the impetus, the compelling factors yield work that is mesmerizing! In this year's edition, it's as if the unconscious whispers through the works, beckoning the viewer to care more deeply.
I asked the Chasing Ghosts VI artists to share what compels them to express the hard things or the hidden things in their work.
The following are their responses:
Jim Richards
There is great beauty in darkness and decay, stillness, quiet: all are fertile fields for creation.
They are foundations of life.
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Solitude Allows for Understanding Which flourishes In quiet and Darkness Remove External Stimulation and The mind Catches fire
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“It is in our nature to be resistant of change. In life we have our own seasons of happiness, Sadness, ups and downs. We must see our lives as a symphony of seasons, With beautiful movements of changes that are In harmony with each other. We must applaud each intermezzo of change. Summer is the sonata of celebrating life, The feeling of effervescence and freedom. Autumn is the vivid scherzo of contentment Of paying attention to what we have. Winter is the composition of loneliness, Of silence and the time to listen As we know that something new awaits us. The last note is yet played. Spring is the opus of a new life, beauty and hope. So there is a new piece of music For every season in our lives. A melody for every purpose in our life… …All we need to do is rekindle the Light of change within us.” By DL Maré (Delesté)
Brooke Cassady
"My mother had a sewing store when I was little. She spent endless hours sewing special outfits for my sister and me. I never appreciated the value of all of the work that she put into the things she made. Looking back, I wish I had acknowledged all that she did.
I watched her body shrivel and decay. She lost cognitive and physical abilities, yet she remained powerfully and painfully aware of these losses. Her body was just a vessel, a form for her spirit. That spirit continues to shine through me, through our family, through the things and people she touched. I struggle with grief. It is a deep, massive void. I find myself holding onto tenuous threads of connection to her—the things she touched and the things she cared for. I cling to these objects, residues of memories to connect back to her.
I make threadlike ceramic forms in porcelain, that relate to our heartspace, our breath, our lungs, our fragile bones protected by thin veils of skin and linear bands of muscle and fascia. They feel simultaneously permanent and impermanent. Porous and open, the absence of form carries equal weight to the presence of material."
Brooke Cassady
Adeline Sides
"The concept alluded to in the "Chasing Ghosts VI: Art that Pierces the Veil through remembrance, legacy, and beyond" is familiar to me. The “Veil” being the most interesting part, as it begs the question: what remains hidden? I am exploring this theme in the photo collection, Self Safari, by challenging my collaborators to discover their inner-woven fabrics: Joys, Fears, Dreams, Aspirations ... Allow their expressions to be therapeutic, a vehicle of touching your inner demons!"
Adeline Sides
Susana Berdecio
"To search for the ghosts was to revisit places through the visual images that I am so drawn to making. The images bring indelible remembrance of light and color, of sound – of the entire sensory perception of place and time. In recent days, the images lament loss and provide an elegy to the intersection of landscape and heart. And as in the ritual of Segaki they cleanse and provide refuge and renewal."
Susana Berdecio
伊藤幸生
Yukio Ito
"Where from, where to? Belief that those ahead wondered the same way gives me feeling of coherence, and a relief."
Yukio Ito 伊藤幸生
Erika Cleveland
"I was immediately drawn to the theme of this exhibit because I always include the shadow in my work. There is no light without shadow, no shadow without light. As living beings (part of this earth), we need the full spectrum from light to dark (and all the colors). We are all connected by the roots and threads that hold us to the earth (with invisible lines). Rather than forgetting, I see the dead as with us always. In my doll, Bloodlines, Five Generations, I pay homage to the grandmothers and to my father. This doll opens up, so that if you open the door, you can see the heart that beats, connecting all the generations, back to the beginning of time. This doll is not meant to represent my ancestors only, but yours too."
Erika Cleveland
Rene Smoller
"My piece, “Watching,” is first meant to draw the viewer in as a voyeur, watching the watcher in an intriguing and intimate setting. Using an intense monochromatic color scheme and placement of the seated figure with her back facing the camera, I wanted to establish the appearance of a cinematic freeze-frame from her point of view. Who is she watching? Is the phantom-like persona an elusive emotional memory that she is chasing? Does she know the person? The answers are for the viewer to speculate on because ultimately, we are all watching, we are all chasing ghosts."
Rene Smoller
Jenny Helbraun Abramson
"Grief got me here. In the dark hours of sleeplessness, wondering how I would go on, I would go out to bathe in the night sky. Or I’d lay in bed in the light of the full moon, and rise before dawn to watch it set. The stars and the moon received my pain, and nursed me with wonder in return."
Jenny Helbraun Abramson
Stacey Gregory
“The Shield of Achilles” is based on Homer’s description of the piece in the Iliad, and W H Auden’s poem written in 1952 about prophetic visions of the breakdown of contemporary society. I wanted to create an updated version of the shield that draws parallels between mythological and modern civilizations, warfare, and scientific discoveries, while still maintaining the structure that Homer described. Ultimately, this piece is about all we have lost and all we stand to lose. The gods of Greek mythology live as metaphors for warrior spirit, virtue, prophecy, and character. Thetis, the mother of Achilles, commissioned the shield knowing that it would not save her son from death, but would ultimately carry him to immortality. For me, it asks the question, what do we fight for?"
Stacey Gregory
James Long
"After an arduous year of tragic events, from the turmoil, unthinkable grief, amidst continued suffering, every unforgettable moment beyond comparison. From within the human spirit, an emergence of resilience, sacrifices made by the living, who rose to the occasion with dedication and perseverance, honoring the dead. We get to know their names through humble tributes of haunting despair, by tearful heart broken mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons and extended families and friends. And I ask you, ”Did we learn anything?” And I ask myself, “What will come of this storied past, resolution or ambivalence?”
James Long
Jan Musante
"One Face of the Pandemic" was inspired by feelings I had during this past year. Wrapped in armor for protection against life, death and disease, this sculpture depicts fear, loss of life as it was known, grief and isolation. The tragic and sudden death of my son at age 18, many years ago, played a central role in the strong sense of despair that is felt."
Jan Musante
Rebecca Gabriel
"The vapors of my ancestors, their strength and victimhood, swirl within the folds and unfolding of my creative process. Like spilled ink, their beauty and suffering seeps into the crevices of my psyche, to nourish and bear these ghosts..."
Rebecca Gabriel
Deborah Gavel
"Many artists love the materiality of their mediums, the colors, yes, and especially the plasticity of it. That’s where the term ‘plastic’ derives from, in the sense of being easily shaped or molded. The process of turning compounds into images of landscapes we feel we can step into, portraits we imagine we can reach out and touch, forms of pain or grace, heaven or hell, abstractions that transport us to another reality is often the driving force. Painters lose their ego selves when working intently on something outside of themselves; time sometimes gloriously ceases while we work. Somedays, unexpectedly, when I am particularly immersed in the process, I might find myself in a meditative space. Fleeting, yes, but one reason the alchemical nature of the act of painting is so compelling to the artist."
Deborah Gavel
Leona Gamble
Hopex John
"Anybody can make a difference and be a voice for the voiceless"- Zach Hunter.
Hopex John
Lindsey Kincaid
“You cannot see me from where I look at myself.”