Listening to the Land
By Tom Wachunas
"I took a walk in the woods and came
out taller than the trees." - Henry David Thoreau
“Memory is the fourth dimension to any
landscape.” - Janet Fitch
EXHIBIT: Landscapes Lost and Found – Paintings and
Drawings by Emily Vigil / at The Little Art Gallery, located in the North
Canton Public Library, 185 North Main Street, North Canton, Ohio / THROUGH
DECEMBER 3, 2017
There’s a river
flowing in every artwork of this exhibit by Emily Vigil. I’m speaking neither
of sparkling streams in verdant woods, nor torrents of water rushing through
fertile valleys. You won’t see spectacular illusions of majestic geography.
Don’t look to be wowed by huge, hyper-realistic renderings of breathtaking
panoramas.
It’s another sort
of fluid continuum that courses through these works, varied as they are in
materiality, scale, and iconography. Call it a steady narrative current of
memory, discovery, and desire. Vigil tells us in her statement: “…I finally allowed myself to reach toward
other places, not always physically experienced, but imagined, present in our
culture. My questions about place evolved into questions about time…” The
spirit of this exhibit is equal parts nostalgic and forward-looking.
Vigil’s expressionist painting style has
a gestural earnestness that imbues even her most delicate observations of
nature with visceral immediacy, as in her mixed media “Duet.” Accompanying the painting is a
thoroughly charming poem (written in a style recalling the syntactic
playfulness of e.e. cummings) describing her serene encounter with a damselfly
and bee that we see in the paining. Vigil is a painter with the soul of a poet.
Further evidence of
her considerable writing gifts can be found in the booklet placed on a pedestal
for viewers to read, titled “Echo, our home.” In it, Vigil lovingly relates how
she came to name her northeast Ohio home - the land upon which she resides with
her family. At the end of the tale, she writes, “That is how I describe our home – this land: a relationship – the
wetland and the valley, filtering back an echo of my words…our words…Ever
diminishing, they never quite disappear.” Painter and poet…always listening.
Some of the most
alluring pieces here - including several acrylic transfer prints that have the
grainy patina of old photos taken in diaphanous light – are remarkably small in
scale. The smallest of her all-acrylic paintings, such as “Presence (Towpath
Trail),” “Broken River,” and “Dreaming,” are intimate, elegant microcosms of
painterly textures.
Collectively,
these images describe a journey at once deeply personal and yet approachable –
a geography both private and familiar, stilled and in motion. One of the larger
paintings, “The Paths Inward,” is perhaps an invitation for us as viewers to literally
reflect on our own relationship with nature. It’s executed on a mirror, with
only a few slivers of glass still visible, punctuating the scene with little
flashes of light as you move around it. Sparks of life and changeability.
Think of the
exhibit as a confluence of people, places, and things remembered, longed-for,
or presently real… of ephemerality side-by-side with permanence. Here, the
ever-diminishing is juxtaposed with the never-quite- disappearing. And all of it is situated in an enchanting
flow. Like a river.
PHOTOS, from top: Presence (Towpath Trail), acrylic on
fabric; Duet, mixed media; Broken River, acrylic on panel; Dreaming, acrylic on aluminum; The Paths Inward, acrylic on mirror; Broken Forest, oil on paper
2 comments:
Well observed and written Tom. I saw the exhibit and was humbled.
Tom, I soaked in your beautiful description and relived my experience in the exhibition all over again. Lovely show; lovely review.
Post a Comment