2017–2018 Exhibitions

remembering
Claire E. Roll

On View: September 2–October 18, 2017

Reception: Saturday, September 2, 4–6 p.m.

Curated by Peter Morse

Claire Roll | Artist Statement

As we go through our daily lives, as we experience the "day to day,” we log, categorize, and remember specific sensory impressions—experiences or encounters—that make us pause or shift our focus from one lens to another. These experiences build up, layering themselves one on top of the next, weaving an intricate network of cognitive memory. The connections we draw from one to the next allow us to recognize and identify ourselves in the way we have interpreted the world.

In my experience, there seems to be a connection between the buildup of individual sensory impression and the universal and communal knowledge that we share. We are forever in a state of becoming; a state of perpetuation. We attempt to reconnect as singular members of a larger whole. This intersection of transformative individual experience and communal knowledge seems to correlate with the existence of an omniscient and ever present divine Creator. It is with this benevolent being that we participate in the communal act of recreating, reforming, and remembering the intent for which we were made.

Whether it is within or without, I have found these things to be true:
Creation is not an act that can be started and completed.
Creation is an act that is continuing.
It is always.
It is ever.

This work represents my way of continuing. My way of gathering and perpetuating, searching and tethering. Of bringing things together trying to make sense of the paradoxes present in the world and those that are present within me. I am trying to make sense of the opposition that seems to tear things apart. I have a desire to live in the either/and not just the either/or. This body of work, and the process taken to give it life, has been a form of connecting, of bringing about, of participating in the active waiting process of transformation.

Mistress, Miss, Mrs or Ms, Madam?
Samantha Fields

On View: October 28–December 12, 2017

Reception: Saturday, October 28, 4–6 p.m.

Curated by Peter Morse

This exhibit of work by Boston artist Samantha Fields spans the Barrington Center's three gallery spaces and includes geometric drawings, wildly-colored, large-scale fiber and mixed media sculptures, deconstructed and rewoven wall textiles, and miniature cast porcelain furniture fragments. Following a highly productive summer pottery residency at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Wisconsin, Fields presents new ceramic works alongside fiber pieces that together reveal her decades of experience in fiber arts, embroidery, sewing, knitting, weaving, sculpture, and drawing. The many characters Field has placed in relation to each other form a diverse "cloud of witnesses" around the central piece, the performative underprimping, a comically large petticoat form that Gordon students will help her build up each week over the course of the show. Mistress, Miss, Mrs or Ms, Madam? is the culmination of Fields' many years of reflecting on craft, community, and the performance of gender.

Faces of Mercy
Touring CIVA exhibit, curated by Michelle Arnold Paine

On View: January 20–March 10, 2018

Curator's Statement:

We are called to see Christ in every person in need. When we act in mercy, it is Christ who receives these gifts, even as it is his love which empowers those who give. Mercy is not an abstract concept but exists with a specific face–Christ in both the individual who gives and receives. Feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, and visiting the imprisoned are all works of mercy which show compassion for the Body and have traditionally been known as the Corporal Works of Mercy. These acts of mercy bring relief to those who suffer, but they also provide hope: hope for change, hope for relationships, and hope for a restoration of culture. Every small act of compassion is a building block in the construction of Christ’s kingdom.

Together the pieces in this exhibit—featuring artists Bryn Gillette, Sergio Gomez, Bruce Herman, Edward Knippers, Jason Leith, Michelle Arnold Paine, Melissa Weinman, and Jean Wetta—show our interconnectedness, how another’s need becomes our opportunity to pray, to extend mercy, and to grow in faith and in relationship. May each viewer’s heart be softened towards his or her neighbor, and towards Jesus, who is “the face of the Father’s Mercy.”