Holocaust quilt detail2

Comment

Comment by Resident Curator on April 16, 2014 at 9:02pm

Hi Linda,

I'm happy you understood my comment about your work inflicting discomfort as positively intended- yours is an intensely powerful and emotional subject, and I couldn't say I enjoyed viewing it without acknowledging the pain of such remembrance. I honestly can't imagine a viewer experiencing this installation not feeling a sense of profound loss.  The vulnerability of the hand worked elements may soften the graphic nature to a degree, but it is overwhelming.

I think it was Picasso who said "Painting is not done to decorate apartments....but an act of war..." 

So you're in good company.

Kristen

Comment by Linda Soberman on April 15, 2014 at 11:52pm

Dear Kristen,

I sincerely appreciate your comments about my exhibit SHAME ON YOU, and specifically  the six-panel (10') paper quilt "Remember (Recuerdo)",  I wrote this statement:

"A single image repeated

is a surrogate for all women

lost in the Holocaust and other catastrophic events.

Threads bind the printed paper pieces

left uncut, like loose strands of hair.

In the end, few remain."

  I found your interpretation about feminine fragility and vulnerability to be worthy of more exploration. I have used hand stitching in other pieces and your comments reminded me of past work. It may be time to go back and revisit that body of work.

What concerned me was your comment about "inflicting discomfort". I have to admit that seeing it stated as such made me uncomfortable. On the other hand, that was definitely part of my intent- asking questions, hoping to make the viewer slightly uncomfortable with the subject matter- on many levels-  so that a dialogue would develop and people would engage in conversation about the pieces. From that point of view, the work did exactly that. Comments from artists, friends, and strangers alike posed questions about victimization, remembering those lost, and dealing with personal and collective loss.The fact that people may or may not have felt uncomfortable seeing my work made me respond in a positive way. I appreciate "response", be it positive or negative, instead of "that's a nice picture".

I enjoy reading your comments about all the works selected. You engage the reader with different viewpoints and I find them helpful in looking at work

Thanks again,Linda Soberman (www.lindasoberman@gmail.com, www.lindasoberman.com)

Comment by Resident Curator on April 11, 2014 at 5:43pm

Curator’s Comments:

 

Thank you for inviting me to comment on your new mixed media work.  First let me congratulate you on your major exhibition at the Museo de Arte in Queretaro, Mexico.  The show looks to be a significant undertaking in terms of physical environmental structures as well as evolutionary conceptual development. Your accompanying artist’s statement helped to contextualize these works to some extent, but did leave me with many unanswered questions. I was first intrigued by the image Holocaust Quilt (especially detail 2) before reading the text, but I initially drew other associations than genocide or the Holocaust.  Instead of summoning complicit human horror, for me the multi-portrait piece actually conjures a more delicate feminine fragility and vulnerability.  The hand stitching offers a prelude to familial quilting and embroidery traditions, and also connects the formal pieces sequentially, as in a book narrative. The repeated ‘identical’ portrait could also intimate genetic variation. But the insertion of the smaller photographic image on the forehead of the doll face has a direct association with memory because of placement.  The graininess of the black and white faces also contributes to the feeling of time passing. Witnessing the piece in the context of other works in the show, a darker association starts to descend on the viewer. The empty spaces ultimately hold more weight and relevance. I feel the Standing Book piece more explicitly confronts the viewer with the destruction or calculated erasure of the female face. But since multiple time periods and levels of violence against women appear to be represented in the show, the individual woman succumbs to an ideological, if not biological, collective. And while you affirm the desire to ask questions rather than provide answers, I imagine a large installation of these works offers the viewer little emotional reprieve. While many of these works are elegantly crafted and composed, the show Shame on You likely inflicts discomfort.