October 29, Memo:
It’s Halloween Season. Don your black apparel and enter the collective subconscious of 42 artists, local and international, shown together in an exquisitely-curated and laboriously cultivated exhibition by Juniper Rag.
“This exhibition engages themes of fear, beauty, humor, instability, loss, and imagery of darkness and the great power of artists as highly creative humans to explore our fears of inclinations of unraveling.” Juniper Rag
Noted: “Paint it Black”
At the JMAC Pop-up space, gallery viewers experienced sublime submersion into a world where the line between the possible and impossible was blurred and where “rapture and ruin” collided. What’s Up Worcester was mad for the brilliant sculpture, surreal paintings, creepy collections, and layered photographs, many by hyper-local artists such as Piya Samant (Skull) and Scott Boilard (Raven, how very Poe!). Better yet, the artists were part of the crowd, engaging in deeply meaningful conversation with the joy of sharing their work. Though the call was for “dark art”, the energy was anything but: It was a celebration of rapture and life because those themes would be absent without wrath and death.
The ambient music by award-winning electronic maven Bobalee and creative energy at the gallery, amidst what others might view as darkness and horror, was: thought-provoking, titillating, and deeply spiritual. Perhaps it is a lesson. In acknowledging our own darkness, emotional vulnerability, and deficits; we become more capable of tolerance and love. We are individuals yet we are all humans.
The Delirium art exhibit and opening last Wednesday night was the brain child of artists, Michelle May and Payal Thiffault, co-founders of Juniper Rag, an elite curatorial consultancy and art mag. They imagined the event as a collective dark alternative reality in which artists and viewers alike were asked to explore the darker side of the season (and the human mind).
And yet, the event was not frightening. The flow of the gallery from Mae Kenny’s larger than life fabric sculpture greeting attendees… through the unusual and original works of brilliant minds in media of every type, tactile and visually stimulating… to a black and white projection of international artists (“inclusion is a hell of a drug” Listen to Nas’ “Everything” here) was “Everything”.
Delirium proved darkness can be delightful. It was a confrontation with haunting works in many mediums presenting a spin on danger, fear, desire and absurdity. But the confrontation was about community and connection, an awareness and a softening of “hard things”.
May and Thiffault, artists in their own right, shared their gratitude for the presenting artists at the culmination of their hard work and dedication to creating a one-of-a-kind space. In her opening remarks, May said, “Through the divergence of these artists we invite you all to contemplate the darker architecture of thought…” Indeed, contemplating the supranatural was hallmark of the event, but the synergism and flow of the space leading to Livy Scanlon’s seance in the THT Rep Annual Poe Double Header, was natural.
Scanlon’s one woman show was astounding. It began with an audience call to repeat a sentence and call upon the spirits. The lighting and sound work were superbly timed to highlight elite acting out of three uniquely flawed characters in Edgar Allen Poe’s Tell-tale Heart and Cask of Amontillado. The audience was rapt the entire hour. They felt “the eye” and the “thumping in the floorboards”. They tasted the wine from the cask and smelled the “nitre” of the catacombs. Clever character switches and costume changes, and a fantastic Italian accent lent some humor to the absurd stories. Audience members did not move from their seats (for fear of spirits or wonder at Scanlon’s flawless performance, one cannot tell)! Poe is a must-see every haunting season!
Dark Menace on the Water
Tina Dobberpuhl
Often that which scares or confounds us is what we find most remarkable. Art can shine a spotlight into the recesses of the mind where we must sometimes go to think a while, suffer a while and come out whole. “Dark art” with its themes of madness, its side show quality, its taunting of the deep psyche, and its spotlight on the macabre, makes us stop and ponder, “what is real?” Are socially accepted works of art what is beautiful? Is a white picket fence the only truth?
“Beauty and ruin” can be closely tied. Consider, for example, that the decay of Autumn lays the earthen foundation for the colorful roots and sprigs of Spring. Or imagine the gifts we receive in lessons of life and love when a parent is on their death bed. The moment is stark, yet it leads to deeper conversations, and the pain allows the mind to wander to forbidden spaces. We must honor the dark places to retain truth, and also accept that: without darkness, there can be no light. It does not make us “bad people” to have a little madness within nor to recognize that all humans can teeter over the edge from “rapture to ruin”. It simply feels frightening.
Artists have the ability to “speak” into reality deeper feeling and thought in appealing and appalling ways that stretch the imagination. It is possible that the more appalling the art, the greater the commentary on the difficulties of being human, thus allowing for greater connection with self and others. Art makes accessible what humans and society have forbidden. Can one not relate a bit to the alter-heroin of Poe’s Tell Tale Heart when she says (as Livy did so well) “And have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-acuteness of the sense?”
We are all a little mad and we are all very human. The combination of Delirium and Poe allowed space for flaws of humanity and society through careful curation and brilliant artistic ambition thus allowing attendees the freedom to be themselves. The truth, one thinks, is the light: Being human isn’t always pretty … To mingle amongst such unusual beauty was a delirious dream. A standing ovation and “encore please”!
*Photo (and event photographer): Matt Wright, Floral Installation: Seed to Stem
Don’t you learn to love your scars and all
Dark boy, don’t you die, they’re just human, let them lie
You just know your world and speak your truth
Let them come to you, for your love and your heart “NAS- Everything
Author Notes: All photos taken by author. Art featured was selected at random. See Juniper Rag link for all artists. Art reciews are inherently subjective. Thank you: Juniper Rag, THT, Livy Scanlon, JMAC staff, Worcester Pop-up for welcoming me. Thank you, also WPD, for protecting me from Zombies filming Dead City right out front!
Betsey Taft Kennedy, What’s Up Worcester, [email protected]
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