In 2017, the Memorial Art Gallery passed the Rochester
Biennial baton to Rochester Contemporary Art Center. RoCo
immediately rebranded the Biennial — which had been an invitational showcase of
the work of six regional artists, exhibited in the MAG’s Grand Gallery — as a
multi-venue, collaborative, and interactive event, building on coordinated the
First Friday gallery openings that RoCo has
spearheaded the past several years.
In the first
year of the rebranded biennial, RoCo, Visual Studies
Workshop, and Gallery r each hosted simultaneous exhibits. Organizers wanted to
encourage collaboration between mid-sized galleries, promote thoughtful and
challenging work, and explore new curatorial models, said RoCo’s
Executive Director Bleu Cease, in a 2017 interview with CITY.
This year,
organizers have further evolved the biennial into “Current Seen,” a string of
contemporary visual arts exhibitions, pop-ups, and installations of new public
art that will unfold along East Avenue and Main Street, mostly during six First
Fridays this fall, between October 6 and November 17. This geographic focus is
meant to addresses the corridor as both a dividing line and a connective
thread, Cease says.
“Current
Seen” is meant “to foster collaboration, help spaces achieve greater collective
impact, celebrate the act of curation, and aid artists in reaching new expanded
audiences,” Cease said in a provided statement. It includes more than 20
exhibitions and events organized by both experienced and emerging curators. Organizers
will seek more collaborators as the event approaches.
One exhibit
in the “Current Seen” lineup is already on view at Central Library’s Rundel Memorial Building (the recent site of the “Stonewall:
50 Years Out” exhibit). “Crafting Democracy: Fiber Arts and Activism,” is a
collection of subversive embroidery, soft sculpture, quilts, and other
resistance art curated by two Rochester Institute of Technology professors, Hinda Mandell and Juilee Decker.
The exhibit
uses the language of traditionally women-oriented crafts to explore the 2016
presidential campaign and its (ongoing) aftermath as its main focus. Some of
the works are finished products, created from the relics of specific responses
to this administration, such as Jessica M. Skulty’s
“Hear Our Voice” quilt that she crafted and used as a protest banner during the
Inauguration Day Women’s March on Washington, DC. Scraps of dark fabric boldly
spell out “Our health matters,” the words layered over a pink Venus symbol.
Ellis Angel’s “Don’t Mourn, Organize,” is a different sort of quilt, made using
strips of posters from the New York City Women’s March, woven and stitched
together.
Other works
will continue to evolve, such as Adrienne Sloan’s “The Unraveling.” Displayed
upright against a picture of the Constitution, Sloan’s knitted American flag is
in a state of deterioration. The artist plans to continuously unravel the work
during the current administration, “as long as our civil and political rights
continue to erode,” curatorial notes state.
More than
one artwork in the show makes mention to Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, of
course the knitted pink pussy hats, and women’s rights in particular. Other artists
are concerned with historic and pervasive issues as they condemn police
brutality, racism, and the whole rotten system, while challenging each of us to
do better.
In
particular, June Lee’s installation, “Bystander,” is a powerful message to the
masses. Two groups of 10 small figures are set up in a display case, facing one
another, but not quite. Each of the resin cast figures is covered with a unique
pattern of explosively colorful thread, and looks aloof in its own way: hands
clasped behind backs or crossed over chests, and eyes cast off to the side or
down at the ground. The work asks questions about our responsibility to one
another, which are evident even before reading the provided statement about the
individual’s duality as a distinct unit and a part of a collective. In all
honesty they look like superheroes refusing to help.
The
exhibit’s curators are looking for fiber artists to contribute to a yarn
installation for “The Corinthian Hall Craft Intervention,” planned for
Wednesday, August 21, 9 to 11 a.m., at the Corinthian Street location of Olivia
Kim’s Frederick Douglass statue. The work will be installed at the former site
of a 19th-century civic center, where the Rochester Ladies Anti-Slavery Sewing
Society organized anti-slavery lectures and fund-raising bazaars, and where
Douglass delivered his “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” speech.
The curators
also worked with RIT Press to create a catalog that accompanies “Crafting
Democracy.” The catalog brings together the art from the show, curatorial
notes, and essays that explore the greater context of craft activism. A
reception for the exhibit will take place Monday, September 16, 4 to 6 p.m., in
the library’s Harold Hacker Hall, with remarks by the exhibit’s curators and
artists. Related programming includes the yarn installation, artist demos, book
discussions, and events in the Children’s Center. For more information, call
428-8304 or visit roccitylibrary.org/location/central.
This article appears in Aug 7-13, 2019.
