Rae Stern: In Fugue

RAE STERN

September 26, 2019 - January 4, 2020 Extended through February 8th

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Above: Night view of the exhibition space at Belger Crane Yard Gallery, Kansas City, MO. Previous: Installation detail. The teapot lithophane is based on a photograph from the personal archive of Leah Elisha.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner.

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F U G U E Rae Stern: In Fugue debuts new, groundbreaking works in porcelain and paper.

Currently on view at the Belger Crane Yard Gallery, the exhibition by the New York based, Israeli-American artist focuses on the elusive and ephemeral nature of memory as both a personal and universal phenomenon. Using mixed media, Stern revisits the memories of families affected by persecution. Through the manipulation of translucent attributes of porcelain and paper, and with innovative use of digital technology, the works pose questions about the relationship between object, memory, and time.

The new body of work was created by Stern during her year-long term as Visiting Artist at the Belger Crane Yard Studios and includes an installation on which she collaborated with Aya Margulis, as well as works in paper. As an immersive experience, the exhibition presents dozens of porcelain objects that upon touch light up from within and expose hidden lithophanes. During her stay in Kansas City, Stern conducted community outreach to locate pre-WWII images from the personal albums of local Holocaust survivors and their family members. The images depicted in the lithophanes portray daily scenes from pre-war life in communities across Europe that were later annihilated.

By creating an immersive experience and allowing the viewers to touch the ceramic objects, the installation environment brings to life narratives and memories assigned to porcelain heirlooms and explores the potential and limitations of porcelain and paper as repositories for fading memories.

In conjunction with the current refugee crisis, the work invites the viewers to reflect on how all immigrants and refugees, from all societies, leave behind rich memories of normalcy, culture and love.

Installation detail: A teapot lithophane lights up upon touch.

The teapot lithophane is based on a photograph from the personal archive of Rita Sudhalter.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner.

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Installation detail: The teaware lithophanes are based on photographs from the personal archive of Jo Kamm.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner

T I M E The exhibition draws on Stern’s personal experience as a descendant of immigrants who left their homelands for various reasons and came to Israel with few possessions.

Growing up in Israel, Stern recollects how random foreign ceramic objects were often displayed in glass cases at the homes of her family and friends. These precious, fragile items were used only on special occasions and handled with great care. As a child, she sought these occasions as an opportunity to hear stories of a past rarely discussed. A teapot or a soup bowl often represented a life left behind and a community which no longer existed.

Stern is fascinated with the elusive nature of memory and wanted to explore the longevity of the narratives linked to ceramic artifacts. She chose to tell the story of Jewish life in Europe through the vibrant life that existed prior to the war, rather than focus on the tragic ending. The chosen images deliberately portray ordinary, personal moments and were sourced from personal archives. Touching the sculptural objects serves as a way to illuminate the images, and for a brief moment, to connect with the bitter-sweet past.

Material culture functions as a medium in Stern’s work and amplifies the sociological and psychological values encapsulated in objects that are traditionally (dis)regarded as decorative art. The use of familiar, everyday items removes elitist barriers and allows viewers to find their own interpretation within the experience.

The pre- and post-war furniture was carefully collected and staged as an echo of the ever changing context in which the porcelain objects exist. Their unifying gray reduces them to a shadow, while amplifying their conceptual role. Only one table, at the entrance to the installation was left in its original condition as a reminder of the tangible origin of the experience.

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Left to Right: Hypomnema; Shoshana, 2019, Handmade paper, 28”x20.5” Hypomnema; Kate, 2019, Handmade paper, 71”x33.5” Hypomnema; Lili, 2019, Handmade paper, 38”x27.5

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The introduction of innovative technology provides an unfamiliar experience and advances the potential of contemporary ceramics to offer an engaging experience.

With the assistance of Craig Berscheidt, a custom-made digital unit was designed, programmed and manufactured in a limited batch. 3D printing was utilized in multiple stages of the creative process as well as in the creation of fitted components. By outfitting the objects with touch sensitive sensors that fade the light in and out, Stern created a seamless, intimate experience with the sculptural objects .

Much like a musical fugue, the exhibition introduces elements and ideas that successively develop and change as they are interwoven visually and conceptually in a dynamic composition. Utilizing the translucency of handmade paper, Stern created the imagery by honing a method to accurately manipulate the thickness of the pulp.

Working with paper, she revists the original medium of the imagery and juxtaposes the vulnerabilities of paper with those of porcelain.

This tension between repetition and change, and between memory and amnesia, alludes to the imminent threat of a present day reoccurrence.

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Producing the work for the exhibition was an exceptionally large endeavor in terms of technical complexity, research and production time, as well as in terms of viewer engagement, community outreach and visual experience. The exhibition has been Stern’s goal for nearly a decade and she collaborated with Aya Margulis, who contributed to the development of the technique used to produce the lithophanes as well as to the infrastructure for producing the work. Craig Berscheidt contributed to the production and programming of digital components of the ceramic installation.

Shannon Brock provided consultation for the papermaking process.

Following a long R&D process, Stern devoted an entire year to create the artwork at Belger Arts, where Tommy Frank, Michael Baxley, Katie Pitre, Joseph Hutchins, Elinore Noyes, Saj Issa, Clay Jarratt and Lucas Latimer assisted the project in different capacities. Stern describes this as “a true community effort to tell the story of communities lost elsewhere”.

Reaching out to survivors and their descendants, Stern established a framework for community engagement. The images were collected over several months, during which Stern met with image contributors, interviewed them and invited them to her temporary studio at the Belger Crane Yard. As a natural outcome of this engagement, in several events held in conjunction with the show the image contributors and their relatives took an impromptu, active role in sharing their personal memories with other visitors to the show. Creating the work at a studio open to the public enabled Stern to interact with visitors on a daily basis. Many groups of students visited the studio to see Stern’s work in progress and to discuss with her the conceptual relevance to current geopolitical shifts.

Stern sees an urgency in presenting this exhibition while survivors are still able to tell their stories and can experience the interaction with the objects and with the general public. The importance of the timing is amplified in the context of the international refugee crisis and rise in hate speech. By telling a story of a community destroyed and rebuilt elsewhere, Stern wishes to draw attention to the current tragedies unfolding around the world.

Top: Rae Stern arranging pulp on the large sheets1; Elinore Noyes and Rae Stern sanding work.

Middle: Rae Stern, Elinore Noyes, Katie Pitre, Michael Baxley and Tommy Frank at the Belger Arts Studio ; Local students inspecting a lithophane Bottom: Visitors to exhibition interact with the exhibition. Photographed by Christen Baker

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The ar tist would like to thank the following people for sharing their family memories and images: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for Regina Atabe, Unkown destiny Irene Bettinger, Kansas City, MO David and Ofra Bloch, New York City, NY Midwest Center for Holocaust Education for the late Gustave Eisemann, KS Lea and Gil Elisha, Hadar Am, Israel Midwest Center for Holocaust Education for the late Isak Federman, KS Carlota Halpern, Kansas City, MO Marga Hirsch and Jo Kamm, Kansas City, MO Madlen Kanzieper, Israel Kate, Allen and Susan Lebovitz, Prairie Village, KS Tjalda Nauta and Elinore Noyes, Kansas City, MO Susan and Michael Richter, New York City, NY Matilda and Martin Rosenberg, Fairway, KS Miriam and Dan Scharf, Prairie Village, KS Yael Roth, Mazkeret Batya, Israel Steven Sherry, Kansas City, MO Bella Sidkiyahu, Jerusalem, Israel Irene Starr, Mission, KS Elia and Ben Stern, Haifa, Israel Rita Sudhalter, Overland Park, KS David and Miriam Ullmann, Haifa, Israel Sonia Warshawski, Regina and Bill Kort, Leawood, KS Yaakov and Martha Wolf, Haifa, Israel Top : Lotti Halpern, Susan and Allen Lebovitz sharing family photographs and memories at the Belger Arts Studio Bottom: Rae Stern presenting work to Holocaust survivor, Sonia Warshawski ; Rita Sudhalter sharing images with Rae Stern. Photographed by Michael Baxley

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for Steve Sherry, Kansas City, MO

A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S

Project Suppor ters DICK AND EVELYN BELGER ASYLUM ARTS

Community Suppor t and Involvement

Carriage House Paper - Shannon Brock

BELGER ARTS

Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design Library - Nilda Lopez

JOAN & STEVE ISRAELITE

GEO - Design Engineering Services, Inc - Yaniv Ben Asher

IRENE BET TINGER

Hammerspace - Craig Berscheidt and Tom Newell Kansas City Art Institute - Cary Esser

Team at Belger Ar ts Michael Baxley Mo Dickens Tommy Frank Cheryl Gail Joseph Hutchins Clay Jarrat Chandler Martin

Lawrence Lithography - Mike Sims and Debbie Thoenen Midwest Center for Holocaust Education - Jean Zeldin and Shelly Cline Metropolitan Community College - Chris Page and Tiffany DaVinci Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art - Catherine Futter and Jake Ludemann United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Suzy Snyder 21c Museum Hotel - Jori Cheville In-kind contributions, consulting and as sistance:

Project As sistants Katie Pitre Elinore Noyes

Dan Altnether, Christen Baker, Sarah Bard, Ofra Bloch, Thayer Nicholas Granstrom Bray, Andy Brayman, Elaine Buss, Liron Elia, Guy Elisha, Eromar Gomes, Pierce Haley, Alon Harris, Jo Kamm, Madlen Kanzieper, Yuval Klein, Chandler Martin, Eric

Interns Lucas Latimer Saj Issa

McLaughlin, Vicky Mayer, Cydney Ross, Noam Schechter, Steve Schechter, Kate Schroder. Melanie Sherman, Kathleen and Bill Stafford, Elia and Ben Stern, Yaniv Stern

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S T E R N

Rae Stern is an Israeli-American artist residing in New York City. As a new-media artist, Stern incorporates digital tools in the manipulation of multiple mediums - including ceramics, photography, paper, and textiles. Her experience working in the high-tech industry has influenced Stern’s art and fueled her interest in the social and cultural effects of technology.

Stern holds a master’s degree from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, Jerusalem, as well as an undergraduate degree from the Tel Aviv University. Stern’s interest in the ceramic medium has led her to pursue clay-centric training opportunities and residencies at Penland School of Crafts, NC, Greenwich House Pottery, NY and Anderson Ranch, CO, among others. Most recently, Stern spent a year as a full time Visiting Artist at the Belger Crane Yard Studios in Kansas City, MO. Notable shows include the Sixth Ceramic Biennial at the Eretz Israel Museum, Ceramic Top 40 at both Belger Arts and Harvard University, and Dish at Medalta Museum.

Stern’s work is included in the Eretz Israel Museum collection, as well as in private collections in Israel and the USA. She has also received support in the form of fellowships and grants from UNESCO, Asylum Arts, the Schusterman Foundation, and Belger Arts.

Rae Stern at the Visiting Artist Space at the Belger Crane Yard Studios.

Photographed by Saj Issa.

Installation detail: A teapot and sugar bowl with lithophanes based on photographs from the personal Archive of Susan Richter.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner

Installation detail: A teapot with a lithophane based on a photograph from the personal archive of Elia Stern.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner

Installation detail: A teacup lithophane based on a photograph from the personal Archive of Allen Lebovitz.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner

Rae Stern inspecting the interior of a lithophane.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner

Installation Detail, teacup lithophane based on a photograph from the personal archive of Ben Stern.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner

Installation Detail: Teacup lithophane based on an image from the personal archive of Bella Sidkiyahu.

Photographed by T. Maxwell Wagner

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www.RaeSternStudio.com Instagram: @raestern #raesterninfugue info@raesternstudio.com

A d d it ion al p h ot os an d informat ion are availab le at http: //j . mp/INFU GU E a nd upo n reques t.

Rae Stern installing an electronic unit with sensors and an LED light, to be fitted with the teapot purched on top of the tall hutch.

Photographed by Clay Jarratt