July 3 - September 26, 2015 Mezzanine Gallery
Hours
Tuesday - Thursday & Saturday: 10am-6pm Friday: 12pm-8pm
Annie Waldrop is an eclectic artist; some would say “an artist’s artist.” Her entire life is dedicated to thinking
about art, making art, living with art, looking at art. Visiting her studio is like walking into an exploded Joseph Cornell box. The figures and objects are life-size; they have (as all good feminist art does) broken the confines of any restraining cultural boxes. Choosing to dedicate her life to art makes Waldrop not only eclectic but also somewhat eccentric – loveably eccentric. She fearlessly collects the stuff of her art: experiences, people, chicken bones, doll heads, seedpods and wire – lots of wire. With all the ephemera she has collected, Waldrop creates spare reliquaries; each painting, collage, assemblage and sculpture is infused with ritual, mystery and, ultimately, a sense of hope. The artist obsesses “about the transient, impermanent nature of life, the power of the feminine, and the absolute elegance of making something by hand.” From the intimate cloistered choices that lead to family secrets come artworks like Sophie’s Evolution, a bigger than life Victorian children’s book and Ring of Desire, with its cubbyholes spilling veiled memories. The artist muses that these pieces suggest a dark psychological trauma, possibly referring to a kind of family disconnect or separation. We invite viewers to reflect on their own life-stories while viewing each of the installations that make up Waldrop’s meditation: The Seen and the Unseen. -Mary Anne Redding, Turchin Center Curator
Related Exhibition Events Sept
9
th
Exhibition Lecture Series: Artist Talk Please join us at the Turchin Center lecture hall for an indepth discussion with the artist about her work and the exhibition.
7:00pm
TCVA.org
Artist Statement_ A couple of years ago I joined a meditation group. The work in this exhibition reflects concepts gleaned from our discussions. The group primarily focuses on the principles of love and connectedness but our conversations encompass a wide variety of existentialist ideas. “Be the love that you are,” is a sort of overall mantra. Topics covered include the ego, the divine feminine, inner reflects outer, the healing power of love, the oneness and the infinite. I feel especially motivated by the idea of focusing on certain “cosmic truths” as a subject Artist’s studio, Roanoke, VA for art-making, while also using meditation as a centering tool for things like internal alignment, spontaneous right action, higher thinking, being present, synchronicity and non judgment. I mention this as these ideas can easily be applied to the creative process. Ultimately, each piece I create acts like a spare reliquary, infused with ritual, mystery and a sense of hope. Having grown up with “Beatlemania” and the 6-year evolution of The Beatles as a creative “group,” a living manifestation of the ultimate power of creativity, and also a blueprint for the development of an artist (especially in the case of John Lennon) I was struck by the fact that much of their work was also inspired by these “cosmic truths.” The trek to India, the sitar and the East meets West union of John and Yoko illustrate their interest in delivering the ultimate message, which is love. All of this began entering my consciousness at age 7. One of the primary materials that I use is wire, a humble material which is malleable, easy to work with, requires only pliers, can be barbed, or, paradoxically, graceful and unforced, easily molded and is also a conduit. In my case – a conduit for allowing life experiences and observations to be expressed through sculpture/art, guided by underlying spiritual principles. The title of this exhibition goes to the heart of ideas about the transient, impermanent nature of life. I love to think about inner and outer worlds and how they relate, things that might be invisible but there anyway, like a vibration, families and traits that are passed from one generation to the next, the mystery of birth, the life death rebirth cycle of life, the personal and the collective connection to the divine, the beauty of nature, the power of the feminine, and the absolute elegance of making something by hand. I think that there is an immediate sense of the spirit shining through a hand-made object that resonates deep within me. In addition to working with wire, I am attracted to light, found objects (paralleling being “found” spiritually) sound collage, color and movement. Anything “of the spirit” as it relates to expression grips me. The biggest challenge in all of this is the integration of these disparate “parts” into a visual autobiography that is both highly personal and highly collective. This installation represents the culmination of explorations in all of these various media and themes. The pieces chosen for this show also reflect the final addition of time as a factor in my evolution as an artist. Deciding, over time, to leave something out (editing) can be just as important as putting something in. Space, interior, exterior, above, below, here today, gone tomorrow…
TCVA.org