GOOD AS GOLD
BFA Midway exhibition on view from March 8-17, 2021 at the University of Nevada, Reno’s Student Galleries South.
GOOD AS GOLD is an exploration of identity, memory, and struggles to understand self-worth when understandings of reality fail, presented through fantastic mythologies of morality and the intimate and repetitive processes of quilting and printmaking. The use of simple drypoint etching and chine-collé to give the effect of amateur pencil drawing and collage result in naïve reimaginings of Eurocentric understandings of good and evil, drawing especially from medieval art in style and imagery: utilizing intuitive perspective, simple backgrounds, and iconic objects like swords, halos, a mounted horse, a slain serpent. Through the framing of childlike internalisations of what it means to be “good” is a meditation on conflict with the self and the problems that arise from self-isolation, reliance on deriving self-worth from relationships of all kinds, and the failures in memory and perceptions of reality resulting from fluctuating mental illness that complicate all of the above. The hand printed images are presented within quilts stylized as tapestries, hung next to a small table set for two with a vase of cut flowers that decay over the course of the exhibition—another representation of the danger of an exclusive reliance on external validation to determine whether one is “good.” The quilts themselves are made almost entirely from years of scraps of collected material gathered from many places (the earliest fabric in the work was collected when I was 12) as a literal assembly of personal history, which is the main thematic reference for all of the work. Quilting as a part of this exhibition draws from concepts traditional to the craft of patchwork, which historically is a way to recycle materials, sometimes as a collaboration over years between women in a family, creating a practical object to keep oneself and loved ones physically warm. In contrast, these pieces are hung decoratively, stiffened using rods, and made with paper, so are not welcoming as objects of tenderness and care, as a reference to self-isolation resulting from low self-esteem and a perceived lack of “goodness”. If to be “good” means to deserve pleasure and joy, then perceiving oneself as anything but, whether because of struggles with memory and reality, a lack of external validation from relationships, or failure to meet societal expectations within a frame of capitalism (which comes with its own set of morals), must mean that one should not allow themselves comfort and confidence. But is “goodness” real, is it something worth striving for, or merely a way to torture oneself and/or justify harm?