“Signals”, 2021, Letterpress print on cotton stock, suite of 26 prints in an edition of 25
I HAD OTHER PLANS
AS220 Aborn Gallery, 95 Empire Street, Providence, RI
April 3 to April 24, 2021
Hours by appointment only, email Neal Walsh, neal.walsh@as220.org, for viewings on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
“The pandemic has slowed and altered the ways we work and live. Inequity and insecurities are more visible than ever and our day to day patterns have been disrupted. Tally is a count of the deaths in Rhode Island, 2,613 at the time this statement was written. Circles is a series of four circular prints capturing some of the emotional spirals brought on by the pandemic especially as numbers rise in the face of more numerous vaccinations. Parable of the Talents, from 2020, is a quote from the Octavia Butler novel of the same name — what would have happened with the pandemic if the election had gone the other way?
Xenophobia, bolstered and emboldened under the Trump administration, is an added layer of fear amidst the ongoing stresses. How do we feel safe or seen when criminal perpetrators and murders are protected and defended by law enforcement? Posters in the front windows of this exhibition are a response to the murders of 8 people in the Atlanta-area on March 16th, 2021. Two small books in the gallery are letterpress printed reproductions of booklets given to Japanese American citizens upon their release from incarceration centers during World War II. The artist’s paternal grandmother was interned in Poston, Arizona from 1942-1945.
Signals is a series of letterpress prints based on nautical signal flags, a nonverbal form of communication. The era of misinformation and fake news has prompted the artist to investigate simpler, more direct forms of communication. The flags are all direct — there is no room for misinterpretation.”
