Kimberley Hart "Promise"

Mixed Greens Gallery

poster for Kimberley Hart "Promise"

This event has ended.

Mixed Greens presents Kimberley Hart’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. Promise consists of new drawings and sculptures in which Hart presents various narratives connected by themes of autonomy, reliance, opportunism, and intrusion, all intimately tied to notions of place and family.

For Promise, Hart has constructed a number of elaborate birdhouses inspired by the Purple Martin “condos” popularized by the Amish community. Farmers attract flocks of these tame, natural insecticides to their specifically proportioned houses with the unusual result of the species becoming completely reliant on humans for housing. Its rival, the Starling, is a common nuisance and an invasive species. Starlings are crevice nest builders and not only harass Martins for their choice nesting sites but notoriously take up residence in attics, barns, and wood piles with their large and unruly nests.

Hart built these Martin Houses using both Amish specifications and the traditional farmstead vernacular. The white clapboard-sided farmhouse, red barn, sheds, and coops, all bursting with nest material, stand overhead on steel posts. The adjacent log pile, made from recycled paper, delights with colored growth rings. Although we never see the Starlings, their intrusion is evident. Touching on notions surrounding the confluence of the built and natural worlds, Hart creates an allegory inspired by her son’s namesake, the Starling.

Hart’s drawings, masterfully rendered in colored pencil, display scenes from two timelines. In one narrative, a shiny airstream trailer shows signs of a fruitful, albeit constricted, living situation. A built-on extension and a tiny tricycle are evidence of an expanding family. A Starling assembles a nest in a long forgotten tree stump. Within the parallel timeline exists a storybook land in which Hart imagines milkmaids laying siege on a Dairy Queen’s castle. Farm animals and equipment elaborate on Hart’s associations with both sides of a battle over milk.

The recurring reference to Starlings and nest-making efforts straddles both timelines. It stands in as a metaphor for a new addition to a family—ironically looked upon as a resident invasive species. Promise is a simulation of the artist coming to terms with her new maternal role—full of fairytale romanticism, forced labor, nest-building, and open-ended visions of the future.

Media

Schedule

from May 03, 2012 to June 02, 2012

Opening Reception on 2012-05-03 from 18:00 to 20:00

Artist(s)

Kimberley Hart

  • Facebook

    Reviews

    All content on this site is © their respective owner(s).
    New York Art Beat (2008) - About - Contact - Privacy - Terms of Use