During the
month of May 2011, we hosted an exhibit of the work of three divergent artists,
Phil Hopper, Elizabeth Bessette and Alison Horvitz. The show, featuring
three different styles and mediums, offered work to appeal to a wide
variety of artistic tastes.
Photographer
and filmmaker Phil Hopper exhibited photographs from his long-term project
"Images of Conflict". The images document murals and graffiti that pertain
to conflicts between republicans and unionists in Northern Ireland and
Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. Hopper states,"... what
interests me is that you can find clues in the popular visual cultures as
to why one peace-process seems to be working and another is proving so
difficult." Hopper has been working in the motion picture, television and
electronic media for over thirty years. His broadcast credits include work
for ABC, the Arts & Entertainment Network and NHK, Japan.
Elizabeth
Bessette, as a student and teacher of yoga, is profoundly interested in
"the subtle and hidden qualities of peacefulness". This philosophy is
reflected in her ceramic sculpture. Bessette explains that her work
"celebrates the goddess imagery" which embodies, among other qualities,
".......a sense of power, integrity, dignity, openness and acceptance that
is in stark contrast to the images that saturate our culture."
The use of
transparent layers of paint is a hallmark of the oil paintings that Alison
Horvitz exhibited. When describing the body of her work, she states " My
main interest is color and the portrayal of objects in their most simple
and recognizable form." Furthermore, Horvitz elaborates on her techniques
used to create this work in explaining " As adjustments are made,
relationship of shape and color change. Transparency allows previous
decisions to influence current ones, while creating an almost infinite
variety of colors. As the intention of the piece begins to emerge, it
becomes a diary, a record of process."
Crucified Dove
Photograph
Phil Hopper
Phil Hopper: Artist's
Statement
Belfast and Bethlehem: Images of Conflict in the Public Sphere
Several years ago as I
walked out Falls Road from the City Centre of Belfast, Northern Ireland, I
met a Republican muralist named Danny Devanny. As a young man, Danny was
convicted and sent to Long Kesh Prison for armed bank robbery. After his
release he became the Director of Communications for the Irish Republican
Army. His work is both local and international in scope, often making
pointed political commentary about U.S. foreign policy. Some time later,
Open Bethlehem, a non-profit organization based in the West Bank, arranged
for me to stay in the Deheisha Palestinian Refugee Camp outside Bethlehem. A
young man in the camp tells me his name is Jihad Ramadan. I ask, “You mean
jihad as in holy war and Ramadan as in the holy month of fasting?” He
replies, “I did not choose this conflict, it chose me.”
Loyalist Paramilitary
Mural, Belfast
Photograph
Phil Hopper
The idea for a cross-cultural photo-essay about unofficial
public political art, ideological images on the urban landscape, emerged
from encounters like these. Danny Devanny and Jihad Ramadan represent
distinct nationalist conflicts each with its own set of geographical,
historical and political circumstances. Both conflicts, in the Middle East
between Israel and the Palestinians and in Northern Ireland between
Protestant Loyalists and Catholic Republicans, are regional yet have
far-reaching international implications. There are also vast differences but
my argument is that these conflicts beg for comparison precisely because in
one case a peace-process is working and in another it most certainly is not.
Damascus Gate Kite
Photograph
Phil Hopper
How these conflicts are depicted as local public political
art is central to this investigation and photography is an essential tool.
Much has been written about the myth of photographic documentation. In her
groundbreaking essay, On Photography, Susan Sontag put forth the idea
that photographs require historical narratives and lacking this context
their meanings become interpretive or perhaps even outright fiction. However
my purpose is not to discourage interpretation of the photographs. These
photographs were recorded in a physical context then removed from that
context and reproduced. They are portable representations of conflict and it
is my hope that they will encourage informed viewer interpretation. In my
experience any kind of discourse discourages conflict.
Elizabeth
Bessette: Artist's Statement and Bio
As a teacher and student of yoga and
meditation, I am very interested in the subtle and hidden qualities of
peacefulness. There is a sense of power, freedom, and well being that
emanates from a person in this state of mind.
Goddess of Peace
Ceramic Sculpture
Elizabeth Bessette
Female Buddha
Ceramic Sculpture
Elizabeth Bessette
Earth Goddess
Ceramic Sculpture
Elizabeth Bessette
I read once that the opposite of war is
creativity. Being an artist in a culture that seems to be seeking
meaning in all the wrong places, and where we are overtly in two wars
and covertly in many others, and in denial of this side of our human
nature, I felt the need to celebrate the goddess imagery.
The goddess image embodies a sense of
power, groundedness, integrity, dignity, truthfulness, openness, softness,
and acceptance that is in stark contrast to the images that saturate our
culture.
I have studied pottery and ceramic
sculpture at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Salve Regina University,
Newport Art Museum School, and apprenticed with local artist Mika Seager,
and am currently studying with Allison Newsome.
Alison Horvitz: Artist's Statement
For the
most part, my main interest is color and the portrayal of objects in their
most simple and recognizable form. The underlying structure of my work is a
collection of mark making. It is here, in the first layers of paint, where
the circles, dots, lines, squiggles appear. As the intention of the piece
begins to emerge, the process of organizing my marks into form begins to
take shape, and I immerse myself in process.
The Living Room
Oil Painting
Alison Horvitz
My paintings are made up of transparent
layers of paint. As adjustments are made, relationship of shape and color
change. Transparency allows previous decisions to influence current ones,
while creating an almost infinite variety of colors. As the intention of
the piece begins to emerge, it becomes a diary, a record of process.
For the
most part, my main interest is color and the portrayal of objects in their
most simple and recognizable form. I pay homage to Paul Klee, Kenneth Noland
and Henri Matisse. Their exploration of pattern and color has informed my
work, and has allowed me to make paintings that, hopefully, honor their
vision.
