Gretchen Reflects on the Biennial Opening
As I work today from my dining room table there is an added sense of listlessness over the generalized anxiety we are all feeling right now. Instead of doing last minute edits to labels, adjusting lights, and welcoming the public, I am at home arranging Zoom meetings and helping my kids navigate distance learning.
Today the Salina Biennial: Art From the Mountain-Plains States was scheduled to open at the Art Center. After months of preparation from the staff, juror, and artists, the doors are closed as we wait out the pandemic.
I took this photo last week, as we were wrapping up installation and preparing for our new reality. As I walked alone through the galleries I was drawn to this particular grouping, beautifully selected and placed by juror Ksenya Gurshtein along with Marc Durfee. These three works are from two young, Mexican-born women artists at the very beginning of what promises to be successful careers. Their works demonstrate strong use of materials and very strong voices. Both artists focus on women’s bodies, and in particular address ways in which women’s bodies are often represented as contested spaces. A theme that is recurring through the Biennial exhibition.
Lily Guillen (b. 1995, Morelia, Mexico. Lives/Works: Wichita, KS) present us with two exemplary pieces: El Escape de Nuestro Cuerpo (Romanos 8:23) and El Acto de Purgar. Her works are crafted from photographs, torn or cut and then stitched back together, framed by gold-painted matchsticks, the ends blackened. The matchsticks recall the gilded frames and halos often depicted in Byzantine, Gothic, or early Christian art. Guillen discusses the relationship between religious institutions and female representation, and how those institutions can engender patriarchal, or machista, ideals. In her statement Guillen also talks about her own experiences “growing up in an abusive household with machista (male chauvinist) ideals.” Her images confront the viewer with pieces of women’s bodies, stitched back together, a personal story of the artist’s own healing.
Victoria Hernandez’s (b. 1998, Zacapu, Michoacán, Mexico. Lives/Works:
Emporia, KS) photograph, Your Insecurities Don’t Define Who You Are, presents us with the image of a woman’s chest, wearing a pink lace bra filled with flowers. Hernandez’s pieces are created in collaboration with her subjects. Each work starts as a conversation with the model about their own insecurities, then chooses the flowers for the shoot. Hernandez then uses the flowers and lighting to “show off” their insecurities. These exercises are meant to celebrate flaws, and also, like Guillen, provide the subject the opportunity to reclaim the narrative and autonomy of their body.
As I reflect on this grouping and the exhibition today, I am also inspired by the perseverance of artists and art museums as we explore this new territory together. We are all learning how to engage our audiences in new and exciting ways. Over the next few weeks we will unravel the images and voices of this year’s Biennial online. We will share with you our favorite works and let the artists tell their stories in their own words. Until we are all able to gather at the Art Center, I hope you can find inspiration through these posts.
Gretchen Boyum, Interim Curator Salina Art Center
