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The Buffalo News
ARTFUL ANATOMY
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WHEN: Through Nov. 16 WHERE: Big Orbit Gallery, 30-D Essex St. ADMISSION: Free INFO: 883-3209
At first glance, Sharon McConnell's two-dimensional serial pieces and
large-scale sculpture - currently on view at Big Orbit Gallery - seem
unrelated to the human body. They appear as straightforward minimalist
ruminations until upon closer inspection their deceptive simplicity gives way
to multiple allusions of human biology. Moreover, instead of distancing the audience with carefully constructed
coolness as minimalism often does, McConnell's fiber-based works possess a
delicately seductive character, infused with an emotional resonance that
draws the viewer in. This visceral attraction is largely dependent on the
artist's two principal materials, the first and most significant being pig
gut. Contrary to expectations, McConnell processes the gut into parchmentlike
gossamer sheets the color of pale flesh. Onto this delicately textured
translucent skin she embroiders blood-red symbolic images or text. This flesh
and blood metaphor and evocative stitching combine to form a kind of
reductionist view of human temporal existence. A case in point is the monumental sculptural piece titled
"Elements," which reduces the human body to a short list of active
ingredients. A yard-wide gut scroll unfurls from ceiling to floor forming a
gentle diagonal slope. Down the front is embroidered a list of chemical
elements found in the human body. Beneath the scroll, loose strands of
embroidery thread stream down, forming crimson pools on a vivid white base.
The draped shroudlike material and cascading red thread create an effect that
is alternately dramatic and subtle. The whole piece emits an inner glow
suggestive of a spiritual presence, and pleads the case for humanity as
something more than simply the sum of its parts. Across the room, a wall-mounted work titled "Tracery" continues
the theme of human mortality. It is comprised of 20 enlarged sets of
embroidered thumbprints, each centrally positioned on an 18 feet by 18 feet
sheet of gut mounted on white felt. The label states that each set consists
of an overlay of a parent and child's thumbprint. The superimposed linear prints - perhaps suggestive of genetic fingerprints
- delicately merge into unpredictable patterns. Dangling red thread-ends hint
at trickling blood, giving the patterns the faint, unsettling appearance of
flesh wounds. All this contributes to a sense impending loss; recognition of
the ephemeral nature of the human body. Variations on the body theme are employed throughout the exhibition. In
"Cell Matter," McConnell stitches textbook style illustrations of
human organ cells onto the gut material. For "Study for Leavings,"
she employs twisted floral images that mimic human organs. In every instance,
the dark and weighty subject matter is rendered palatable through the
delicate allure of intelligent design. |
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