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Sat. July 31 - Sun. Aug. 1 What do artists do when a crisis hits? Make art. Provocative German artists Heide Hatry is very good and quick on these kind of things, and with the Gulf Oil Spill presenting this slight problem for the next few decades, she's seized upon it to put up paintings, sculptures and, well, dead animals, such as birds, opossums, rats and mice. Dead animals have a lot to do with the oil spill; hence, her art. H atry's exhibtion, called "Imagine It Thick In Your Own Hair," is up through Sunday Aug. 1. What she does: Using road kill and found animal corpses, Hatry creates scenes suggestive of what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico today. Her pigments are actual oil and tar and other “organic” materials that are the substance of the disaster. (Note: Life is a circle. The repugnant oil that is responsible for destroying life and land was once dinosaurs and plants.) The show is intended to evoke the tragedy being visited upon earth and sea that is choking its life from it right now and to motivate people to help. It is difficult to not look away when you see an actual animal suffering - we've seen this on the nightly news and on Anderson Cooper a lot - and Hatry wants to demand awareness by putting the harsh truth directly in front of the viewer, unmitigated by distance, or even the distancing effect of TV. The show is a benefit exhibition, and the proceeds from sales will be used to support the Audubon Action Center, the principal organization assisting the wildlife of the Gulf region. The effort will be supplemented by a silent auction of work by various artists contributed by the gallery and gallery artists. Hatry has created several unique artist’s books for the current exhibition in conjunction with poet Robert Kelly, whose poem, "Imagine it Thick in your own Hair," provides the show’s title and with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Franz Wright.Both works are previously unpublished. Here's Kelly's poem, "Imagine it Thick in your own Hair" your eyes stuck shut you gouge your scummy finger
in your nose to break a way for air
the black snot won’t come out
you breathe a little, it whistles it’s in your eyes now, burning
and your ears are stuffed with sludge now too
you can’t even hear yourself scream and while you’re screaming
you’re thinking
if you can still think
that all this oil was leaf and meadow once,
turf and forest waving
millions and millions of years all this was green life once
and even now the glistening black sludge
has a sheen of tree-brown in it
a sheen of green — forget the pelicans and pretty ducks,
this is happening to you you are the one
sealed in scum you feel your scalp aching
your head trying to breathe
did you know we breathe through the skin?
only you can’t, not any more,
never again, your skin belongs to business now
this is the Midas touch of money
they trade in your skin on the bourse,
there is nothing left of the original you
you still are screaming
you make hardly any noise
your throat is choked with oil
you make only a little shushing noise
like money changing hands you still worry about he pelicans and the sea turtles
you worry about the ducks and cormorants
the beautiful anhinga
but this is happening to you a tar-black seagull
wings still flapping
is stuck to your shoulders you can’t breathe any more
you pray for the pelicans
are you praying for them or to them
and you are the pelican now Some Hatry background. She studied art at various art schools and art history at the University of Heidelberg. She taught at a private art school in Germany for 15 years, and since moving to NYC in 2003 she has curated exhibitions in Germany, Spain and the USA (notably Skin at the Goethe Institut in New York, the Heidelberger Kunstverein and Galeria Tribeca in Madrid, Spain; Out of the Box at Elga Wimmer PCC in NYC; Carolee Schneemann, Early and Recent Work, A Survey at Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, MA; Meat After Meat Joy at Daneyal Mahmood Gallery, NYC; Kate Millett, Oppression and Pleasure at Pierre Menard Gallery in Cambridge, MA and Theresa Byrnes, NEST in Brooklyn). She has shown her own work at museums and galleries around the world, and has edited more than a dozen books and art catalogues. Her book Skin was published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg in 2005 and Heads and Tales by Charta Art Books, Milan/New York in 2009. Gallery hours: 12-6 pm, seven days a week. Free. 10 Arrow St. Cambridge.617-868-2033 www.pierremenardgallery.com |
