| Issue #8 - May 14, 2010 |
Art Commentary
Pulp, Paper, Paint at Delaney Cooke Gallery
 Work by Beth Giles |
Beth Giles has long been known as a noteworthy printmaker and former director of Southampton College's Avram Gallery. With her present show at the Delaney Cooke Gallery in Sag Harbor, Giles goes beyond what we have come to expect. Still using the printmaking medium to advantage, the artist continues her experiments with handmade paper, this time incorporating her own portrait and abstract images. What's unique with this series, however, are the myriad purposes and themes that the work suggests.
Yet we might not even think about the themes, so exquisite is the formal quality of the pieces: the paper and how it's torn in a seemingly spontaneous way; the graceful pink red and green colors; the circular shapes conveying a subtle sense of sensuality; the fragility of the compositions.
We are drawn to ask about how the paper is made. According to Giles, various fibers, such as cotton, abaca, linen and flax, are used for the basic material. The fiber is then hydrated and blended together in a container to make the pulp. Giles next uses a screen to lift out the pulp, putting it on a flat surface to dry.
When looking at the work that's created, there's a strong evocation of thematic strength and endurance, despite the paper's physical fragility and its lovely texture. This contradiction is intriguing, especially when we consider that the pieces' circular shapes suggest a "book" as we flip through the various pages. What can be more enduring then a book, we wonder?
Moreover, if we consider that the "book" is an autobiographical one, this allows the work to be perceived as even stronger. After all, what's more lasting than a life story? There's much to infer that the images are autobiographical if we let our imagination run a little wild. First, prints of the artist's face are interspersed throughout the pages; some are noticeable while a few peek out from a sheet of paper. This "hide-and-seek" process, where images are both shown and revealed, somewhat mirrors the method that authors use when writing their true stories.
There are other images in this book, like work resembling landscapes. Some notations are just abstract splotches of color. Could these possibly arbitrary images represent a "stream of consciousness" which the artist adds to her visual autobiography?
Of course, other interpretations pop up. For example, most circular configurations recall the rhythm of life and death, a basic tenet applied to various religious and philosophical disciplines. From the general to the specific: the female sex organ also comes to mind when looking at this same shape.
Sources for themes come to the surface the more we study Giles' work, including influences from Japanese art. We can even see images that look like the moon and the earth. The various designs made by the tearing of the paper are other salient aspects of the work, and meanings can be derived from these as well.
"Pulp, Paper, Print" will be on view at Delaney Cooke Gallery, 150 Main Street, Sag Harbor, until May 31. The opening is Saturday, May 22, 5-7pm. Call 917-445-8427.
