“Gatekeeper” Exhibition
William Holman Gallery
[Image: Kate Gilmore "Built to Burst" (2011) C-Print, 26 x 40 in. Ed. 1/10]
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William Holman Gallery presents Gatekeeper a group show curated by Nicholas Cohn and Katie White, featuring three artists whose work explores ideas of access and barriers to entry. Inspired by the German philosopher Martin Heidegger’s essay, “Building, Dwelling, Thinking,” Gatekeeper offers a variety of interpretations of how the spaces we inhabit enforce or challenge gender roles, ethnic discrimination, and economic inequality within society.
Kate Gilmore is renowned for her physically taxing performance art presentations, which embody the frustrations of gender-based discrimination and limitation. This frustration is apparent in “Built to Burst”, a never before shown photograph that was taken from overhead at the conclusion of one of Gilmore’s performances. In the performance, she smashed a series of ceramic pots that were filled with paint and had been lined up alongside a canvas. The resulting photograph is perhaps a nod to the quintessentially masculine Pollock’s splatter paintings and a commentary on the need for more women artists’ representation in museum shows and collections. Kate Gilmore continues to work with pots as a metaphor for femininity in the video “Break of Day”. In this video, Gilmore methodically carries pots filled with hot-pink paint up a series of stairs and then drops them, shattering the vessels and splattering the paint dramatically.
Gender roles further unravel in “Wall Bearer” a photograph showing women in pink dresses holding up a wall that leans against their shoulders. The work is exhibited next to the photograph “Blood from a Stone” which was commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum and features a series of heavy stones which were placed on a high row of shelves by Gilmore. Both works question ideas of domesticity in modern American society, and serve as a reminder that many women have become the primary source of household income, and “carry the weight” or do the “heavy lifting.”
U.K based, Indonesian artist, Sinta Tantra is widely known throughout Europe and Asia for her large-scale public art projects that, “wrap themselves around architectural environment…challenging our understanding of geography while playing on notions of globalization.” We are excited to debut her work for the first time in a U.S. gallery with a new abstract painting “Recktangle”, based on an architectural building plan. The title alludes to multiple ethnic communities coexisting in one urban environment. Presented alongside “Recktangle” another architecturally inspired work “Dymaxion: Dynamic, Maximum, Tension” is based on the teachings of American neo-futuristic architect Buckminster Fuller. Tantra follows Fuller’s teachings with an abstract world map overlaid on a target, highlighting the need for cooperation in solving global issues such as the environment, disease and famine, not isolationism and discrimination.
Inclusion and acceptance are on-going themes within Tantra’s work. Her use of bright colors and geometric shapes can be traced to her Indonesian background, a technique apparent in “Together Yet Forever Apart” a series first presented at the Liverpool Biennial 2012. The theme for the biennial was “The Unexpected Guest,” a discourse on the influx of immigrants to the U.K. and other wealthy countries in the European Union, and the widespread ethnic discrimination as a result of the strain on these countries’ social and public services.
Brazilian born Liene Bosquê is a visual artist working primarily in sculpture. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Chicago and baccalaureate in Architecture from Mackenzie University. Bosquê creates miniature imaginary cities using historical monuments. These works offer a bird’s eye view of how structures allow, prohibit and channel access, often with economic implications.
With “Ricordo” Bosquê has cast a series of Italian architectural landmarks, early representations of democracy, science and faith, while the shadows they cast eerily below suggest greed, corruption and indifference to suffering. Bosquê continues to question the real meaning behind our great architectural achievements with “Unlearning from Las Vegas”, which captivates the viewer with its organized city grid and LED lighting. But as is the case with Las Vegas the city, the shiny façade lures a desperate traveler, who ultimately leaves in a more desolate condition. With the site-specific work “Escape City 2014”, a vinyl laser cut, we are enamored by the beautiful skyline that blindly overlooks our neglected communities.
Gatekeeper is a visual interpretation of social ills. Gilmore, Tantra and Bosquê shed light on these issues in an attempt to raise awareness, break down barriers, and make progress.
Media
Schedule
from June 25, 2014 to July 26, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-06-25 from 18:00 to 20:00