By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The visual art in the exhibit “Sharp Teeth” now at BGSU’s Bryan Gallery is the product of a lot of talk.
Curator Sanaa Humayun had conceived of the project around the theme of gossip and “whisper networks ” two years ago. She gathered a group of women artists whose work she admired who would explore the theme. Those artists started meeting monthly over Zoom in October.
“Gossip,” Humayun said, tends to have a negative connotation, especially when those engaged in it are women, and most especially when they are women who are marginalized because of their race. Yet it is also “a tool of care and friendship.”
She said gossip “is a very coded word to delegitimize the work done in women’s spaces. I wanted to bring those conversations and relationships into a centered space.”
[RELATED: Sharp Teeth exhibit at BGSU satirizes racial & gender norms in art]
In November, the artists finally met in person, convening at BGSU’s School of Art, and staying together an Airbnb not far from campus.
The work on the walls in the Bryan Gallery owes much to that residency. The artists availed themselves of all the workspaces, materials, and mind power the school had to offer.
The result is a collection of a dozen pieces that draw on the experiences of this gathering of artists of color reacting to the world.
Rihab Essayh’s “Livin’ in ruins of a palace within my dreams” serves as the axis for the work. Created of organza and crinoline, the shelter is located in the middle of the Bryan Gallery.
The structure houses a rumpled figure or maybe it’s the impression left by a person, now departed, a ghostly image of grief.
Essayh, who was born in Morocco and raised in Montreal, said “Livin’ in ruins” reflects the trauma and grief her people have endured.
The supports were constructed on campus, she said, with the fabric work completed after the residency. when she left.
The pieces all reflect the artists activity will at BGSU.
Humayun is a weaver. “I make the same mistakes over and over” extends her technique. After weaving the cloth and embroidering on it, she added dashes of paint, inspired by the other painters in the show.
At BGSU, she made a casting of her hands that seem to be lifting the cloth from the bottom.
Toledo artist Faith Goodman speaks directly to the theme with a high-stepping evocation of the cakewalk. The dance was a way for enslaved people in the South to satirize the gentry under the cover of entertainment. She adds tea to the menu. The liquid spills from the pot and cups. “Spilling the tea” is an expression for gossip.
She usually works in ink in two dimensions, but she wanted the figures to be more dynamic. Goodman didn’t want them “to be trapped in two dimensions,” instead “I wanted them … to look like that we were in our space and dancing.”
Other artists with work in “Sharp Teeth” are: Emily Riddle, Jasmine Piper, Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet, Mizin Shin, and Raneece Buddan.
BGSU graduate student Elizabeth Meadows added arrangements made of dried plants from her garden that are in the entryway to the show.
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In the Wankelman Gallery across the hall, “Nuestros Niños El Futuro (Our Children The Future),” an exhibit of artwork created by children participating in a La Conexion after school program, is on display.
Jeffrey Eden, who has graduates degrees in studio art and art history from BGSU, arranged the exhibit.
He’s been volunteering at the La Conexion after school program for two years tutoring kids of immigrant families. He helps them with their schoolwork, and as a result helps them with their English. (He said his Spanish has also improved.) The kids he worked with range from 2 through 10. Megan Lay tutors the older students as well as teaching ESL to adults.
It started as a service-learning project for a semester. “I was so attached to the kids I extended way past the class.”
Eden recently took a job in Fort Wayne, but has arranged his schedule so he can return to BG to continue tutoring.
“Art is a great way for them to keep working on projects together,” he said, and using their English.
He noted one toddler, who is very rambunctious, yet when he sits at the art table is intent on his work.
Lay said that one older student Evelyn Tolentino arrives with her homework completed and heads straight for the art table.
On hand at the opening of the exhibit was 10-year-old Rayden Antuan Pedraza Santana, son of Yuneisi Santana and Rayden Pedraza.
Eden said the 10-year-old is extremely patient as he works on his paintings, several of which are in the exhibit.
He came into the program very shy, the tutor said. He’s “blossomed,” Eden said. “Now he’s Mister Popular at school and has a good grasp of both languages.”
Asked which of his paintings was the most popular, he shyly selected one – a bright blue sky with clouds with “Jesus” printed over them.
“That’s where Jesus lives,” he explained through his mother. Then he said another colorful abstract may also be his favorite.
The exhibit will be on display for another week or so.
