Diedrick Brackens, If you feed a river, 2019, Museum purchase, Carmen Donaldson Fund, 2019.61 © Diedrick Brackens
Mending the Sky is an exhibition currently on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art, which focuses on responded to the disaster of 2020 in a restorative way and imagining a better future in the process. Art within this exhibition "recognizes that we must address past problems and remedy present issues in order to forge a new path forward." (NOMA) This exhibition is put on physically, but the NOMA website provides images and descriptions of the show. The physical space of the show is the height of exclusivity, given the precautions that need to be taken because of COVID-19, but from all the images and footage of the show, the space itself seems to function as a restorative haven for its viewers, with cool colors and areas of low light. I am personally fascinated with the focus on the elements, specifically the air and water.
One of the pieces that stood out to me was If you feed a river by Diedrick Brackens. This tapestry depicts two black half figures on either side of the image, connected by a blue field of color that reads as a river, with fish swimming through it. There is a blue figure wrapping its arms around one of the black half figures. Based on the description of the piece the website provides, this piece is split down the middle, with the two black half figures represent two sides of a whole person, separated across a river, and the blue figure can be seen as the river itself coaxing the figure back to wholeness.
This focus on the bridging of a gap, and the therapeutic properties of bodies of water, lends me to an introspective take on the meaning of the piece, and by extension the meaning of the show. In order to bridge the disasters in our world, and "Mend the Sky," we first have to mend the shortcomings within ourselves.
I appreciate the specificity and amount of information you provide in the review. I believe the citation in the first paragraph should have the period after the citation rather than before. Additionally the second to last sentence in the first paragraph may benefit from being divided into multiple sentences. You could consider clarifying what you mean by the height of exclusivity as I’m not entirely sure what you are trying to communicate. I liked your inclusion of your personal interpretation of the piece. I’d like to know if there is anything you’d improve about the exhibit.
ReplyDeleteBased on your review, this piece seems whimsical and meaningful. The idea of the work having therapeutic properties is mimicked in simply the appearance of the piece itself. I find it interesting have you weave in physical description with conceptual description. It also is important to the concept of the show that you describe the current social climate when it comes to museum shows. By understanding the context of the show itself, it becomes easier to recognize the connection between this show and this work of art. There is a lot of wonderful and specific commentary in this review! It makes it super easy to see into this piece.
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