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Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Visual Art Currently Hanging

Posted by on Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 1:57 PM

GhostHouse_email.jpg
Claire Cowie's Ghost House (2008); wood, urethane resin, enamel, paper, thread, silk; 30 by 16 by 15 inches

At James Harris. (Gallery site here.)

You could easily miss this hanging sculpture in the back room at James Harris Gallery. It's not part of the panoramic landscape painting (made of 12 paintings) that spans around the walls of the main area of the gallery, and it's not advertised on the web site. But it's new, too, and it's haunting. Inside the house hang the heads of people (and one animal) that Cowie has known who have died. She's painted each face twice, once on each side, each time from memory—so the person being remembered looks sometimes slightly different, and sometimes very different, from one side to the other. With the slightest movement or wind in the room, the heads turn, and you get to see the same face in one way and then another, the varying way they are remembered and translated by Cowie's memory working in tandem with her hand.

Someone told me they found this creepy, all these dangling heads, turning, flashing differently each time around. I see it as a reaffirming way to escape the problem of trying not to let the dead disappear, and yet trying to free them from the fixity of the photographs they're in, knowing they won't appear in any new photographs. I love it.

 

Comments (6) RSS

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1
Why is Seattle art so boring?
Posted by Seattle art and people = lame and boring on December 16, 2008 at 2:01 PM
2
The first thing I thought when I saw this was "ZOMG white chocolate pretzels!!!"
Posted by The CHZA on December 16, 2008 at 2:05 PM
3
This is beautiful. Thanks for writing about it. You're absolutely right...I missed it when I saw the show and now I'm going back to check it out.
Posted by Emily Pothast on December 16, 2008 at 2:06 PM
4
Sounds like an inventive and inspired idea. A nice piece of art? Meh.
Posted by Shelby on December 16, 2008 at 2:27 PM
5
Wait...
http://www.examiner.com/r-4559400~Freezi…

did slog just hiccup?
Posted by j.lee on December 16, 2008 at 2:52 PM
6
i just saw this about 30 minutes ago. i'm nuts about claire's art.
Posted by joey on December 16, 2008 at 3:39 PM

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