Some thoughts on “An Upending Collaboration”
Fountain Street Gallery
Core Member Group Show
Location: Piano Craft Gallery, Boston
“Upended” artists Sarah Alexander, Kathline (Kate) Carr, Tatiana Flis, Georgina (George) Lewis, Virginia (Ginny) Mahoney, Alexandra Rozenman, and Sylvia Vander Sluis joined forces to collaborate by Zoom, email and postal mail in a project that for most was a new experience.
Below are my excerpts from the Fountain Street blog post.
Tatiana │ The birth of the project:
Early on, when Melissa asked for group projects to be incorporated in “Upended,” I came up with an idea for an exquisite corpse-like project. The process made sense to me - not being able to create with others. Being blind to what is going on around you. Only being able to control what is at your fingertips. It fit the moment.
I took a leap, and told Melissa my idea …. and it was a resounding yes! So, I sent out the call for participation, thinking only two or three other artists would be interested. When six came forward, it was very exciting. It spoke strongly about how much we all needed a connection to others.
Once we came up with some basic rules of engagement, we all went on our way, meeting a few times to check in and refine some details. In one meeting, Alexandra spoke about her personal collage project, and we all really connected to it. Alexandra ended up sending each of us a page of her project for inspiration or inclusion into our own work. The collages she sent ended up defining the personal space of each artist’s allotted area.
Regarding my own work, 2020 was a blender in which my studio practice was literally spun around in and… upended! Grasping any resilience I had left in me, I took advantage of all the uncertainty and began taking online classes, which focused on painting and silencing the artist’s “inner judge.”
I do not consider myself a painter. A sculptor? Yes. A printmaker? When I have access to equipment, sure. A painter? Nope... It was liberating. I found myself approaching my work from an inside-out view to an outside-in perspective. My imagery went from a focus on solid whole forms to fragmented shadows and abstracted spaces. I started working in-depth with window shapes, and how this form and structure could read as a comforting protection to bleak isolation.
As I continued to think about the exquisite corpse project, Alexandra’s collage shapes began to form structural mass to me - so much so that they ended up becoming the basis for my contribution. My section plays with ideas of duality, from light to dark, to the softness and rigidity of our surroundings.