Seasons change, and we adjust accordingly. We move from the blistering days of summer that seemed to last forever, to the swift change of fall where it seems time escapes us. Change means progress, and year after year, we move onward. The Hilliard Art Museum’s new exhibits for the autumnal season encapsulate the changes of our culture with its eclectic trio.
The exhibit features the works of twenty female photographers in “A Century in Focus,” the bronze and steel sculptures and paintings of Curtis Patterson in “Persistent Vision” and the sci-fi fantasy works of Matthew Day Jackson’s “Yesterday’s Tomorrow.” What is the common thread connecting such differing concepts? Our past, present and future.
One medium that has brought great change is photography. It changes how we perceive and remember the world around us. In the exhibition “A Century in Focus,” women direct our eyes not only to their lived experiences, but to the experiences of humanity.
Through the works of Dorothea Lange and Sabine Weiss, viewers see photographers that capture political hardships, while Anne Brigman and Ruth Bernhard express creativity through their abstract photography.
Even the works of Abbey Drucker showcase femininity through her lens. Spanning across decades, these women ventured to make the viewer not just see a captured memory, but to absorb the emotion and unspoken words that lie beyond the film.
Touching on lived experiences, Curtis Patterson’s exhibit does more than just craft a story of history; it leaves a question mark and endless arrow that points to unforeseen possibilities. A Shreveport native, Patterson was born in 1944 and came of age in Louisiana during the civil rights era. He was the grandson of a master carpenter and earned a Master in Fine Arts in sculpture from Georgia State University, becoming the first African American to do so.
“Persistent Vision” spans almost two decades of work, and each series follows Patterson on his journey as an artist. “The Rocker” features beautifully arching sculptures that feel as though they have been stopped in motion.
His “Diasporic Reflections” showcases faceless masks that move like the ongoing transformation of self. “Shango’s Friends” pulls from Yoruba spiritual symbols of strength and power. And finally, “The Great Migration” brings together these concepts as a remembrance of the twentieth-century movement of African Americans, and a search for new possibilities.
“I stand on their shoulders, and hopefully somebody will come behind me and continue to do the same,” he says in the informational panel of his exhibit.
Finally, an exhibit that feels lost in the in-between. It explores a past world dreaming of what could be, and what actually came true. Matthew Day Jackson paints the hopefulness of America after World War II, life on the moon and what life could be right on earth.
Three rooms of a home are outlined for you to walk through, sit down and become stuck in a strange in-between. Jackson recreates Life Magazine articles as shiny colorful paintings on view, and recreates the American kitchen with dishes you can set down.
Every piece is intentional, and the shiny laminate reflects your face. It reflects the humanity that brought these dreams and tangible things here. The overwhelming billboard that shifts in the back of the exhibit overwhelms you. You witness the shift between the sprawling canyons of the Earth, the damning craters of the moon, and the dark plastered reflection again, of you. A trio of life.
Each exhibit takes you on a journey that feels personal to the artist, but also to oneself. It is masterfully open to what your mind can conjure up, and what you can surmise from the mediums and techniques used.
It is an understanding of where they came from, and a hope for where they could go. And in turn, a reflection of where we could go, too.
We are only a culmination of our experiences, but through art we can explore concepts of hardship, exploration and discovery completely unspoken. In the abstract flowers and arrows often featured in Patterson’s work, we see the cyclical nature of life and the possibilities of our future.
In the photographs from decades of women, we see snippets of life and some of them stare back at us. In the enamoring pieces of Jackson, we get to sit with the past, and see progress in motion. Change is inevitable, and death is certain. These pieces give immortality to something we often don’t get to see until it has already occurred–change.
The Hilliard’s curation team beautifully brought together such unique and standout concepts to be seen, felt and enjoyed. Every exhibit was a step into a different world, but the language spoken was the same. They speak in their respective mediums to share the same ideal: The passage of time and the ways people understand themselves through it.