‘Expected, time without issue. Passing calm. Pandemic, the death of a loved one, a parent. Chaos, time no longer linear, fractured, out of sync. In that loss and loneliness creation is but a salve a means toward, perhaps not salvation, but stability, from the ashes, not a phoenix but an angel appears from these often incapable hands’ 

 

Bayard’s poetic artist statement describing his recent work aptly sets the scene for FOUNDERS DAY, the upcoming three person show at Eonta Space. The work of three very individual artists presents themes that seemingly work in sync on many levels. The work speaks of our changing times, the bruise of trauma and the need to adapt to those changing times. It represents work made as a response to life’s downturns while all the time reminding us that art retains the power to lift us back up. Creativity sparks the pleasure centers of the brain. This seems the perfect space in which to remind ourselves of Oscar Wilde’s timeless quote from Lady Windermere’s Fan,

“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

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LAUREN FARBER’s recent work with ‘obsolete’ and unwanted books is the result of her unwilling emergence as a ‘legally blind person’. As a former paper conservator, Lauren has a healthy respect and years of experience handling old books and artworks. Now, as her sight declines, she has altered books to other uses, simply because they no longer retain the same power over her. At the same time the value we place on books has changed due to the internet. All while the threat of libraries being denied the right to have certain books resonates across the country.

 

‘I started repurposing books into other objects and uses because I can no longer read them so to me they are no longer books’, Lauren says. 

 

Her folded books and magazines take on new roles as fantasy towers of lace-like snowflakes, shiny installations that creep along walls and floors like toxic mold or mycelia. Lauren has pushed the boundary of what and where a book begins and ends by using fire, bullets and nails.

Layers of paper become a pathway to ideas about meanings, respect for possessions, knowledge and the shaping of history.

 

BAYARD uses fabric like an expressionist painter uses paint. Large swathes of color ignite his angel framework. The missing element is the human body so you have to insert yourself into the piece to become the life force within the angel. His ovoid ‘eyes’ hang vertically and horizontally, soft, tactile and mysterious. Made early in 2021, ‘Angel’ is composed of thousands of strands of cut fabric strips, crocheted onto plastic piping frames. It has the grandeur of the Nike of Samothrace, the bling of a Met Gala gown and beguiles us with color and light-hearted feel-good exuberance.

 

DAN PEYTON is showing photographs taken over the last year and half while he travelled back and forth to England as his mother, Diana, a sculptor and potter, was reaching the end of her life. He is also showing silk screen prints on repurposed packing case wood, literally successive layers of paint laid on layer upon layer of wood.

 

‘This work presents a cross between imagery bordering on the banal and quotidian but also concealing layer upon layer of hidden meaning. Each image, stirred together in a haphazard fashion, has deep personal meaning to me. It is my farewell to a parent, a country, a way of life and the gateway to a new chapter of life. Since these things are not readily apparent my narrative can then be hidden as the viewer creates a narrative of their own’

 

Open for Jersey City Friday on June 2nd and the following weekend, the show is also open for selected weekends and by appointment through June. A schedule of dance and music performances will be forthcoming.