NYAB Event - Silvia Russel "In Between Time"

Silvia Russel "In Between Time"

LMAKgallery

This event has ended.

The gallery is pleased to announce the presentation of "In Between Time," the third solo exhibit by Silvia Russel. In this exhibit, Russel sought to capture the process of gentrification in the Lower East Side through drawings. She has done so by interacting and interviewing members of the LES community. Russel emerged herself in the LES neighborhood - she approached inhabitants on the street, took part in individually guided walks with locals and spent nights in their residence – all in effort to view the neighborhood through a different lens. She interviewed across the board - from inhabitants whose roots are cemented in the community to new arrivals, asking both ends about the ways in which gentrification has affected their lives.

Russel is interested- as an artist and outsider- if and where the old and new meet. Do social networks mix? Do different social groups work together in the neighborhood? Does the new replace the old? Or, do they develop a hybrid characteristic to the neighborhood? In her work, Russel combined the stories she has been told with her own experiences and imagination. On view are colorful drawings accompanied by written statements of the interviewees depicting LES inhabitants, such as Chinese, Hispanic, Jewish and Caucasian persons in a background typical for the LES area. The drawings give a glimpse of the social positions in the neighborhood and how this has changed over time. The work offers a visual dialogue to the idea of gentrification in the LES, and makes the viewer a witness of a moment in the ongoing process.

In relation to this, Russel will also present a series of drawings, which was developed in a neighborhood in Amsterdam called the Bijlmer. It is a residential area that was developed in the 70’s and was presented as a suburban neighborhood, a utopia, however it became known as the ghetto of Amsterdam. In recent years the neighborhood has seen drastic changes and celebrates its diversity within the community. The two bodies of works offer an interesting relation and contrast to each other as the viewer can see the result of gentrification in neighborhoods from different hemispheres of the world, and finding that we don’t differ that much at the end of the day.

[Image: Silvia Russel "Selection of Bijlmer drawings" (2010) acrylic and pencil on paper]

Media

• Painting
• Drawing

ADVERTISE ON NYAB