Reception: July 13th | 6pm-8pm

Eleanor Harwood Gallery is pleased to present the group exhibition : “What Is Left Behind”. The exhibition is curated and written by Chloe Ghillani, MFA.

By investigating the diverse practices of Pegan Brooke, Caroline Charuk, Alika Cooper, Ricki Dwyer, and Margaret Timbrell, “What Is Left Behind” comments on the often overlooked interactions of society and the ways in which modern commodities and privileges impact the environment and our lives.

Our modern world is connected by the infinite desire for efficiencies within all aspects of life, such as within products, services, relationships, and labels. By using the term efficient, it’s meant to describe the ability for our society to receive almost anything quickly, easily, painlessly, and cheaply. These capabilities can blind the ways they may affect the environment, the lives of others, and ourselves. Often producing contradicting and unexpected outcomes, these interactions between people and the need for those efficiencies are within human nature and cannot be classified as good or bad. Operating within this environment can be challenging, thrilling, shocking, and leave you in awe, but observing, commenting, documenting, and creating are ways of navigating through it.

———————————————————————————————————————

The approach of summer made me think of how contradictory the word is in terms of the weather and temperature within the Bay Area. Growing up in the east coast, summer meant hot, sticky, sunny, and long days; very different from the fog covered mornings and chilly weather on this coast. The nostalgia of constantly being near a body of water hit me hard this season, and I instantly thought of Alika Cooper’s on-going body of work, Wet Suits. These bronze suits are created through the process of “lost-wax” casting, but in this case no mold is created for her suits deeming them one of a kind. What stuck out to me about these pieces is that the original fabric of the bathing suits, either it be polyester or nylon, is composed of society’s cheap and efficient alternative to natural fibers— man-made plastic fibers. These flexible soft plastic based fibers will outlast the strong hard bronze in nature. Another contradictory reality; in this case though, most people tend to not acknowledge it within our consumer and “throw-away culture” society.

Within the gallery, Alika’s bronze Wet Suit X and XI appear to be soaked golden fabric bathing suits tossed on the ground and left to become stiff, perhaps grow mold, and even forgotten. The placement of this installation forces the viewer to walk around the suits invoking the negligence of the person flinging them aside. Ignoring a simple action such as hanging a suit up to dry or discarding trash in the correct bin also highlights the ingenuous and grotesqueness of the action itself. The installation acts as a stage for exposing the vulnerable natural figure stripped of its garments, reducing it to a “shapeless” gender neutral body. More from Alika, “For me, the process of turning fabric into sculpture opened up another possibility through which to explore the absence and representation of the female form in the popular imagination. Whereas the fabric paintings render a delicate, softer touch, the bronze sculptures challenge the use of materials classically associated with a male ego and its monumentalizing.”

As this concept was brewing in my mind, I was exposed to Pegan Brooke’s “Light on Water” series which asks viewers to pause and observe their interaction with nature and marvel at its elements to provoke thought. Instead of glaring down at your phone recording the sunset on the water, why not take a moment to enjoy it in real life? The two paintings featured within this series depict the sublime moment of light reflecting off of water— little specks of light are illuminated, dancing a continuous rhythm, disguised as little insects for fish to jump at, always reoccurring. Before viewing her work in person and relating back to my initial impression about Alika’s featured work, I instantly thought of external elements within our waters that draw attention or hide within it. For example, plastics and micro-plastics. They never will biodegrade, their only fate is to break down into smaller pieces bit by bit, and they are constantly being added into our natural environment and the food chain. When viewing her work in person, I realized that her technique drives her work. It promotes a musing, yet efficient way to view light, perspective, and her form of information: brush strokes. Her marks act as a language hiding tons of information and perspective within one angle of viewing the painting, but instantly a whole new plethora of data is revealed when walking over to the other side of the piece. Pegan’s pieces do not only promote physical movement, but mental stimulation as well.

Caroline Hayes Charuk creates critical and often humorous pieces that discuss her identifying space as a queer woman within her family and society by utilizing and representing materials, such as textiles, embellishments, and consumer-grade craft, often associated with specific genders. Throughout the exploration of the work included within this show, I have been intrigued by objects that are composed of a material paradoxical to their actual make-up and societal reference. Caroline’s two pieces, Brick Sequin String and Brick Sequins 2 within “What Is Left Behind”, appear to be composed of large sequins. Brick Sequin String is even painted metallic to further mimic a plastic sequin’s appearance. These pieces are composed of fragile terra cotta and paint, which is revealed when the backs of the sequins are shown. In Caroline’s words, “I often joked that my (former) studio was within walking distance to Michael's and Home Depot, and that really forms the basis of my aesthetics. I'm super interested in how that sort of big box store-driven hand-making and materialism intersects with capitalist consumerism, and feel like one can look at it either cynically or sincerely, or both at once.”

Ricki Dwyer’s featured diptych MP301.GP301 is a combination of mono and ghost prints. These works conceived as snapshots, hold onto the momentary form of drapery. Throughout our discussions, Ricki spoke about their interest in “memorializing” objects and connecting it to the representation of the body. I realized that most of the work within the show relates to the materiality of fabric itself, clothing, and the human form. Fabric production being one of the largest commodities within our culture, directly relates to the topic of fast-fashion within our world. By framing her pieces with wood that was once from a hand-operated loom, Ricki “memorializes” the human fueled tool that is now replaced by mechanical looms and other machines within the larger corporate cloth, clothing, and textile industry. Fast-fashion may be the most efficient and affordable way of creating and obtaining clothes, but the quality of the stitch and fibers used often regresses. As well as impacts on factory worker’s physical health, well-being, and the environment.

Margaret Timbrell’s creative practice highlights the peculiar moments of language and social constructs geared towards herself as a woman, mother, and artist through the traditional process of needlework. One of Margaret’s pieces included within the show, Ode to On Kawara, caught my attention while viewing her work. The piece powerfully states, “I AM STILL ALIVE”, in all caps stitched in the color red on a hot pink background. The statement speaks to On Kawara’s series, “Today”, where the artist painted the date every day from 1996 until he passed away in 2014. Margaret followed him on Twitter and noticed that the account tweeted “I AM STILL ALIVE” every day. Not knowing that he has passed, she strongly sympathized with the statement and related it back to her own tragic experience of cheating death during a major life altering accident. After learning of his death, she was astonished that an algorithm was placed on the account to continue his work indefinitely. I find this statement extremely relatable to all the works and concepts within the show; either it be applied to wide-spread views about our environment, in society, or our capitalistic consumer culture, the statement empowers the impacted.