Sunday, June 10, 2018

Old Vessels, Robust New Wine








Old Vessels, Robust New Wine

By Tom Wachunas

   “The aesthetic rationale for using appropriation, as distinct from a political one (though it may come to the same thing), is to insert a tiny wedge between the name and the named, to search out a crack in the wall built of habit and certainty, and work into that small fissure a measure of existential rebellion…Change the context, and meaning is made anew.” – David Salle, from his book, “How To See”

   “For many, even those who have not read the Odyssey, Odysseus’ adventures are part of our cultural knowledge. Given this familiarity, I have chosen to depict his journey within the mythological time period. In contrast, I have chosen to align Penelope’s heroic journey within the present context of female struggle and empowerment.”
- Kari Halker-Saathoff

   EXHIBIT: Odysseus and Penelope – The Long Journey, by Kari Halker-Saathoff / at the Canton Museum of Art THROUGH JULY 22, 2018
 1001 Market Ave. N, Canton, Ohio / Information: 330-453-7666,


   As physical entities in time and space, we are all vessels. Containers and transporters of our stories. Likewise, our art. 

   One way to think of art – whether spoken or sung, played or performed,  drawn, painted, printed or sculpted – is as a societal self-portrait; a tangible, formalized declaration and sharing of our collective soul. Our art can let us see who we were once, are now, and could yet become. 

   With this exhibit, Kari Halker-Saathoff has employed the historically potent art practice of bringing attention to a now by re-presenting a then. Parallel messages separated by centuries if not millennia.

   There are many significant precedents, among them the Neoclassical oil masterpiece by French painter Jacques- Louis David, Oath of the Horatii. The painting was inspired by an ancient story of early Roman soldiers pledging their lives to a cause before going to war, and here was intended to inspire French citizenry in 1784 to embrace the classical values of civic duty and sacrifice amidst the fervor of the impending French Revolution. Another compelling example is a series of magnificent oil paintings by Italian Baroque-era painter Artemesia Gentileschi, a brilliant advancer of Caravaggio’s tenebrism. The series began in about 1620 with Judith Beheading Holofernes. All the ensuing paintings in the series were variations on a story from the Biblical book of Judith, preserved in the Catholic Old Testament, but designated in the Protestant canon as apocryphal.  In any case, Judith was a Hebrew widow who saved her city from destruction by killing the enemy Assyrian General Holofernes. Judith’s actions in such an adversarial context resonated with Gentileschi as a symbol of her own struggle to be acknowledged not just as an accomplished painter in a male-dominated art world, but also respected as a strong, relevant woman in an oppressively patriarchal society. 

   And so it is that in this remarkable body of work - a combination of 12 graphite drawings on paper and 12 ceramic vessels - Kari Halker-Saathoff has appropriated Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey, composed near the end of the 8th century BCE. In text placards that accompany the artworks, the artist gives us an episodic synopsis of this iconic narrative, wherein we learn of Odysseus’ arduous 10-year journey to return to his homeland after the Trojan War. He battles mythical beasts and wrathful deities. Meanwhile, his wife, Penelope, and son, Telemachus, bravely resist cruel and conniving suitors who compete to marry Penelope in a doomed attempt to claim the kingdom of Ithaca.

   The intricately composed graphite drawings exude a graceful theatricality, as if constructed by a scenic designer for a stage play. All those beautifully blended grey tones and ornate linear details against white grounds are actually cut-outs in part, placed in turn against solid black backdrops. It’s an arresting effect, lending a sculpted, bas-relief air to the compositions. Additionally, there are ovoid portraits floating in the corners of each drawing, looking like jeweled pendants or medallions. For the most part, these visages seem to be too…today to be characters from an ancient epic. Perhaps they’re important contemporaries, personal to the artist’s own journey. 

   And therein lies a fascinating turn of perspective, most apparent in Kari’s 12 ceramic vessels. The clay was formed by potter Joshua Ausman according to her specifications, and the shapes of the pots are reminiscent of classical Greek amphoras. Each is trimmed with low fire red accents and adorned with bold, illustrative images in black. 

   You could call these images dramas-in-the-round. They require you to circle them on your own journey to take in all their visual and thematic content, which was inspired by the Women’s March of 2017, and the concomitant concerns of the #MeToo movement. In recognizing the elements of dignity and valor and bravery and heroism threaded through The Odyssey, Kari identifies most deeply with Penelope - not only her anxieties and sufferings, but her fortitude, faithfulness, ingenuity and intelligence as well. Notice how the story progresses from one vessel to the next. The years march on as Penelope waits. Accordingly, the vessels’ necks, ringed with red lines (somewhat suggestive of tree rings), grow progressively taller. Vessels holding more and more…hope?

  A rising up. Slowly but surely, these engaging artworks transcend their rootedness in dusty old myth to become a tangible connection to our present. As such, they’re immediately, indeed urgently relevant to our current milieu of volatile social confrontation and ideological reckoning. “Change the context, and meaning is made anew.”   

   PHOTOS, from top:  1. Clay vessels by  Kari Halker-Saathoff  (with Joshua Ausman)  - image courtesy of the artist) / 2. She Resisted / 3. She Was Warned / 4. Suitors Sued For Harrasment / 5. Breathless Dead / 6. Who Receives Him Kindly / 7. Heartsick On The Open Sea – He Made His Name By Sailing There 

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