Friday, April 13, 2018

Mined Memories - Tangible Transience







Mined Memories – Tangible Transience 

By Tom Wachunas

   “To my mind, one does not put oneself in place of the past; one only adds a new link.”  - Cy Twombly

   “Artists are mystics rather than rationalists. They leap to conclusions that logic cannot reach.”  - Sol LeWitt

EXHIBIT: Dreaming in Reverse - works by Clare Murray Adams / at John Strauss Furniture Design, 236 Walnut Ave. NE in downtown Canton, THROUGH APRIL 23, 2018 (my apologies for this late posting) / Monday-Friday 9 – 5, Sat. 10 - 4



   The second of the two links above (the first being to Clare Murray Adams’ website) is to an excellent article by Dan Kane on John Strauss’s contemporary aesthetic and his uniquely handsome venue located in a revitalized, century-old building in downtown Canton.

    Climbing the creaky staircase to the second floor gallery is to encounter a changed atmosphere. The airy elegance of the main floor show room gives way to a vaguely haunted niche. It’s nothing spooky, certainly, but more like an attic - a place packed away, a retreat from the accoutrements of the present to those of another time. The gallery itself is actually a converted hallway - long, tall, and wide enough to accommodate all sorts of art, I would imagine.  A distinct presence seems to whisper in this physical space. For now, call it one of remembrance and retrieval, and one which harmonizes quite effectively with the spirit of Clare Murray Adams’ exhibition.

    The selections here are from eight series of her works, ranging in time from found object sculptures of the early 2000s (“…influenced by my love of Joseph Cornell and the collection of objects that I have amassed,” she tells us in the exhibit information sheet) to 2017-2018 drawings on paper and small collages on wood panels. In appreciating the great diversity of media, techniques, and processes that Adams engages, I found this, from her web site statement: “…Reflecting upon my art origins as a contemporary quiltmaker, I can see that the use of various kinds of fabric, stitching and appliqueing was the foundation for the way in which I now work.” 

   There are no actual quilts hanging in this exhibit, the dictionary definition of a quilt being “a bed coverlet of two layers of cloth filled with padding (such as down or batting) held in place by ties or stitched designs.” But consider quiltmaking in a more expansive way, as a compositional concept. If you think of it as an overall image-making sensibility beyond our typical associations with decorative or functional objects, then you might better grasp the essence of Adams’ absorbing visions. At the heart of her work is a psychological and emotional thrust born from the act of layering and juxtaposing multiple components, or conjoining variable materials – patching together pieces of something into a cohesive and very intimate whole.

   Adams draws those ‘somethings’ from her memories of people and places, or past sketchbooks and journals. Or they can be abstract responses to ideas explored in earlier artworks, at times incorporating remnants from older pieces. Works such as “Anonymous” (from an eponymous 2017 series), for example, deconstruct the formulaic look and method of a quilt into separate tactile and painterly elements floating on, or stitched to, a nonspecific plane.  
  
   “Last Season Sweet Potatoes,” like many other pieces here, has a gestural spontaneity and immediacy about it, replete with signs and markers laid out as if mapping a route to an affectionately recalled event or discovery. Even her relatively more austere black-and-white paintings exude a playful fondness for the disarming simplicity of certain forms and textures.

   In all, Clare Murray Adams is a remarkably deft linguist, so to speak – a multilingual mystic of a kind. There’s perceptual intrigue in the way she folds the literal into the abstract, the tangible into the ephemeral. In the process, she articulates a hybrid visual language suffused with poetry both visceral and sweet.

   PHOTOS, from top: 1. Fly Away Home / 2. Anonymous / 3. Last Season Sweet Potatoes / 4. Stone and Twine / 5. Resisting Today’s Reality / 6. Sunspots

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