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Local artists confront gun violence
BY THOMAS CALDER tcalder@mountainx.com Hedy Fischer understands that a local traveling art exhibit on gun violence and police brutality won’t likely impact the state, region or country as a whole. “I’m not naïve enough to think that,” says the Pink Dog Creative co-owner. But Fischer does believe that art can help communities enter into a more constructive dialogue on otherwise divisive issues. On Friday, June 15, Trigger Warning will debut at the YMI Cultural Center. The show will feature the works of 21 artists from Pink Dog Creative. Featured mediums include acrylic and oil paintings, collage, glass mosaic, handcrafted jewelry, pen-and-ink drawings, photography and pysanky (a Ukrainian craft that involves a wax-resistant method of designing and decorating eggs). Trigger Warning will travel to a series of venues throughout the summer and fall. After its inaugural event at the YMI, the exhibit will head to Habitat Brewing Co. in August, followed by the First Presbyterian Church in September, before the series
AS ONE: The latest Pink Dog Creative exhibit, Trigger Warning, features 21 artists, including, from left, Holly de Saillan, Viola Spells, Anita Shwarts and Stephen St. Claire. Photo by Thomas Calder returns home for a showing at Pink Dog Creative. For participating artist Joseph Pearson, showcasing the work in a diverse set of spaces is crucial for reaching a broad local audience. He also views it as a symbolic gesture. “By having the artwork in a neutral location, like a brewery, hopefully it will create a comfortable environment,” he says. “And hopefully the work will stimulate a civil conversation.”
SILENT NO MORE The impetus for Trigger Warning was a pair of events in February: the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla., which left 17 students and faculty dead, followed by the leaked body camera footage showing former Asheville police senior officer Chris Hickman, a white man, beating Asheville resident Johnnie Jermaine Rush, who is African-American. Since that time, violent acts have continued across the country, including a deadly shooting on April 19 in West Asheville, resulting in the death of a mother and two children, as well as the most recent school shooting on May 18 at Santa Fe High School in Texas, which left eight students and two teachers dead.
Such events have been on the minds of Pink Dog artists in preparation for their show. But in the process of creating the works, other issues such as privilege, naiveté, education and activism have also come up. “I think as a fairly typical white male, I was just blind to a lot of things,” says painter Stephen St. Claire. “And I don’t want to be anymore.” Graphite artist Anita Shwarts shares a similar experience. Before participating in Trigger Warning, she was relatively silent on social and political issues. “I feel guilty about having to be given that opportunity [to act],” she says. “I’m grateful to have it, to say something, but I wish I’d have had the courage to have done something a long time ago.”
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AIM AND SHOOT: Trigger Warning will feature a variety of mediums incuding photography by Ralph Burns. His piece “Western North Carolina #93” was shot in Clyde, N.C. Photo by Ralph Burns MOUNTAINX.COM
JUNE 6 - 12, 2018
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