Eloquent Countenances
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| Veiled Radiant Joy |
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| The Gardener |
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| Wind in the Flowers |
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| Gilded Hope Rising |
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| Wisdom of Silence |
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| The Ancestor |
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| The Phoenix Rising |
By Tom Wachunas
EXHIBIT: Facing
Humanity – work by Jonathan Kipp Becker / at Vital Arts Gallery Through December
18, 2021 / 324 Cleveland Avenue NW, downtown Canton, Ohio / Gallery hours: Wednesday
4 – 8p.m., Thursday-Saturday 6 – 10p.m., Sunday 10a.m. – 2p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/VitalArtsGallery/
https://theater-masks.com/about-the-artist/
https://www.facebook.com/Theater.Masks
“Nothing is more real than the masks we make to show each
other who we are.” ― Christopher
Barzak, from The Love We Share Without Knowing
"I would say masks are stories, they're the story of
their maker, they're the story of the person who encounters them, and they're
the story of the universal human condition…” – Jonathan Kipp Becker
It’s certainly interesting that this exhibit opened
on Halloween, our culture’s season of the mask. In our ritualized annual parade
of peculiar personae, which witch were you? What ghoul, goblin, ghost? What
hero, villain, savior, or scoundrel? A Disney damsel or a Marvel mutant? Angel
or alien? And so we go our merry if not mischievous way.
For the moment
though, let’s flip this street theater paradigm over. Let’s step away from silly
disguises, and into revelations. What if masks can be more than false faces,
more than ornamented mendacities? What if masks can be visions of our active
truths, our authentic identities, our genuine personhood?
This consideration forms
the contemplative heart of Jonathan Kipp Becker’s stunning works. To better
appreciate his background and remarkable accomplishments as a master of his
craft, a teaching artist, and a performer, I strongly recommend clicking on the
hyperlinks posted above, which include an interview with Ed Balint, arts and
entertainment journalist for The Canton Repository.
Working in painted
gypsum plaster or neoprene (a synthetic polymer resembling rubber), Becker
sculpts exquisite simulacra of countenances, many of them drawn from ancient
cultures. At once archetypal and specifically personal, his objects speak of human
connectivity throughout history as well as in the artist’s immediate present.
For each piece, the artist provides a written
narrative about his inspiration. Wisdom of Silence, for example, recalls
the idyllic times he spent camping on the forested land owned by his Uncle, who
could speak to owls, and ends with this poem by Edward Hersey Richards: A
wise old owl sat upon an oak. The more he saw the less he spoke. The less he
spoke the more he heard. Why aren't we like that wise old bird?
Poetic, too,
is the bold, bright dragon in The Ancestor. Becker, himself born in the
year of the dragon, remembers a gift given by his grandfather to his
father - an embroidery of a dragon that
his father hung in his office. “…I have felt an affinity for them my entire
life,” Becker writes, “…For me… the dragon is…Courage Strength
Hope Stubborn resolve Explosive anger Rage Wrath Chaos Wisdom Knowledge A Shape
Shifterrrr…
Shape shifting – as
both a visual and conceptual encounter - is an especially important component
of Becker’s haunting Veiled Radiant Joy. His candid, at times searing words
about the work constitute a moving meditation on the deep spirituality resonant,
to varying degrees, in all of his pieces in this exhibit. He begins with, “This
piece is a commentary on how it is, at times, as difficult to come out as
having deep spiritual convictions as a gay man as it is to come out as gay.” He
concludes his assessment with, “I often hide my spiritual convictions and
that which brings me profound inner peace and joy out of a fear that it might
be judged or simply pushed away as invalid. I find that rather than communicate
the foundations of my convictions through words I instead create works intended
to inspire and celebrate the humanity of others.”
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