Deposition : Drawn
This is an installation shot of the exhibition I have been posting about "Deposition : Drawn".
Here is the text of (long) statement I wrote for the exhibition:
"Deposition : Drawn" **
(An introduction by exhibition curator Tim Lowly)
Dear viewer,
Please note that the works in this exhibition are most likely not (about) what they initially appear to be. To better understand this exhibition please read the following.
As the curator and director of this gallery for over twenty-five years this exhibition is a rarity in that it brings together my role as gallery curator and my work as an artist. In relation to the latter, I am referring specifically to the most frequent subject of my own art: my now 37-year-old daughter Temma. Temma is and has been profoundly disabled since shortly after birth when she stopped breathing, had a cardiac arrest and–once revived–was having constant seizures: all of which ultimately resulted in substantial brain damage. Temma does not seem to be able to learn / remember. As such she exists attentively in a state of utter and profound innocence.
Temma is a member of a sector of society that is rarely seen and even more infrequently represented (pictorially or otherwise). Ethically it is a fraught thing to photograph someone who is unable to consent to being pictured. As such, individuals like Temma are largely invisible to (and unknown by) broader society. I find Temma to be a profoundly meaningful human and as her father I believe she is certainly worthy and deserving of representation. Much of my work as an artist has been Temma-centric. But this exhibition marks a new initiative titled “Deposition” in which Temma is conceptually at the center of the project but does not appear directly.
With this the first iteration of the Deposition project twenty-four artists have generously participated with their understanding that the exhibition would be symbolically, indirectly–yet centrally–related to Temma. I gave each of the participating artists a unique prompt which was informed by their own art practice and in some way–metaphorically, symbolically, poetically–by Temma. To be clear: every one of the images here was in some respect developed as a poetic / symbolic meditation on Temma Lowly (and–by extension–others like her).
For instance, following are examples of the prompts that led to four of the images made for the exhibition:
- Leyli Rashidi Rauf’s prompt was a drawing of a girl’s “pony-tail” of hair – perhaps being cut. The title of Leyli’s drawing “To break with the past” references the cutting of a woman’s hair as a gesture of protest in the current uprising for democracy in Iran. For Temma’s family the drawing also brings to mind the practice we have of cutting Temma’s hair every three years to donate it for wigs for people with medical hair loss.
- Emma Hadzi Antich’s prompt was a drawing of a baby mountain. One of Temma’s nicknames is “Baby Mountain”. This comes from my amusement when (as I was growing up in South Korea) American military would refer to their Korean girlfriends as “baby san”– with an unintended double meaning being that “san” can mean “mountain”. According to the artist her drawing of a mountain range–employing a stylization reminiscent of Orthodox iconography–protectively shelters the “baby mountain”. Emma’s meaning of the image certainly mirrors the way Temma’s care has been a matter of community.
- Greta Bisandola’s prompt was a drawing of utter innocence in a mysterious space. This Italian artist brought to her drawing a disconcerting juxtaposition of the head of a seemingly distressed infant on the torso of a woman’s body (the latter seemingly referencing the Italian Renaissance tradition sculptures of idealized nude figures). For Temma, who is 37 years old the existence in the body of an adult woman seems to be a truly mysterious thing.
- Alex Maczkowski’s prompt a drawing of a tree falling in the forest–perhaps with a bird taking off–whilst wondering if anybody hears taps the singer Bruce Cockburn’s twist on the famous philosophical question: “"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?". But Maczkowski’s prompt shifts the metaphor from Cockburn’s critique of deforestation of the Amazon (“If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?”) to wondering who hears–pays attention to–the profoundly disabled–i.e.the “fallen”.
** Deposition is a curious word that I am using here metaphorically with a nod to these two meanings:
1) Art historically: an image of Jesus being lowered from the cross by a group of people.
2) Legal term: out-of-court testimony made under oath and recorded by an authorized officer for later use in court.
Deposition : Drawn
This is an installation shot of the exhibition I have been posting about "Deposition : Drawn".
Here is the text of (long) statement I wrote for the exhibition:
"Deposition : Drawn" **
(An introduction by exhibition curator Tim Lowly)
Dear viewer,
Please note that the works in this exhibition are most likely not (about) what they initially appear to be. To better understand this exhibition please read the following.
As the curator and director of this gallery for over twenty-five years this exhibition is a rarity in that it brings together my role as gallery curator and my work as an artist. In relation to the latter, I am referring specifically to the most frequent subject of my own art: my now 37-year-old daughter Temma. Temma is and has been profoundly disabled since shortly after birth when she stopped breathing, had a cardiac arrest and–once revived–was having constant seizures: all of which ultimately resulted in substantial brain damage. Temma does not seem to be able to learn / remember. As such she exists attentively in a state of utter and profound innocence.
Temma is a member of a sector of society that is rarely seen and even more infrequently represented (pictorially or otherwise). Ethically it is a fraught thing to photograph someone who is unable to consent to being pictured. As such, individuals like Temma are largely invisible to (and unknown by) broader society. I find Temma to be a profoundly meaningful human and as her father I believe she is certainly worthy and deserving of representation. Much of my work as an artist has been Temma-centric. But this exhibition marks a new initiative titled “Deposition” in which Temma is conceptually at the center of the project but does not appear directly.
With this the first iteration of the Deposition project twenty-four artists have generously participated with their understanding that the exhibition would be symbolically, indirectly–yet centrally–related to Temma. I gave each of the participating artists a unique prompt which was informed by their own art practice and in some way–metaphorically, symbolically, poetically–by Temma. To be clear: every one of the images here was in some respect developed as a poetic / symbolic meditation on Temma Lowly (and–by extension–others like her).
For instance, following are examples of the prompts that led to four of the images made for the exhibition:
- Leyli Rashidi Rauf’s prompt was a drawing of a girl’s “pony-tail” of hair – perhaps being cut. The title of Leyli’s drawing “To break with the past” references the cutting of a woman’s hair as a gesture of protest in the current uprising for democracy in Iran. For Temma’s family the drawing also brings to mind the practice we have of cutting Temma’s hair every three years to donate it for wigs for people with medical hair loss.
- Emma Hadzi Antich’s prompt was a drawing of a baby mountain. One of Temma’s nicknames is “Baby Mountain”. This comes from my amusement when (as I was growing up in South Korea) American military would refer to their Korean girlfriends as “baby san”– with an unintended double meaning being that “san” can mean “mountain”. According to the artist her drawing of a mountain range–employing a stylization reminiscent of Orthodox iconography–protectively shelters the “baby mountain”. Emma’s meaning of the image certainly mirrors the way Temma’s care has been a matter of community.
- Greta Bisandola’s prompt was a drawing of utter innocence in a mysterious space. This Italian artist brought to her drawing a disconcerting juxtaposition of the head of a seemingly distressed infant on the torso of a woman’s body (the latter seemingly referencing the Italian Renaissance tradition sculptures of idealized nude figures). For Temma, who is 37 years old the existence in the body of an adult woman seems to be a truly mysterious thing.
- Alex Maczkowski’s prompt a drawing of a tree falling in the forest–perhaps with a bird taking off–whilst wondering if anybody hears taps the singer Bruce Cockburn’s twist on the famous philosophical question: “"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?". But Maczkowski’s prompt shifts the metaphor from Cockburn’s critique of deforestation of the Amazon (“If a tree falls in the forest does anybody hear?”) to wondering who hears–pays attention to–the profoundly disabled–i.e.the “fallen”.
** Deposition is a curious word that I am using here metaphorically with a nod to these two meanings:
1) Art historically: an image of Jesus being lowered from the cross by a group of people.
2) Legal term: out-of-court testimony made under oath and recorded by an authorized officer for later use in court.