(Her)..prints (are)… digital manipulation(s) of scanned kodachrome slides from the 1950’s… etched onto photopolymer plates….in mysterious circular prints of fragments…..writes Dunia Molina, Director Galeria Nacional del Centro in Costa Rica.
Let’s start with the avian flu pandemic, which is a possibility they say. Wait. No. Let’s start with Taylor. the daughter of Monica - Better yet, let’s start with the concept, double entente (which happens to be the title of a past show at Vassar College) I’m having a confused moment as to which “topic” should be the worm at the end of my fishing pole.
Back up a bit:
First there is Monica, the artist, who offers up, in work and conversation, a splendid buffet of tasty socio-cultural ideas that are both disturbing and reassuring. For example, take the threat of an avian flu pandemic, a potential global situation which has become the fulcrum for a dialogue in Monica’s work about human loss of control (disturbing), how not touching each other in our accustomed ways (also disturbing) should the threat become as big as life. If we could just substitute elbows for hands, knees for lips, etc) or, maybe, wash our hands more often. (reassuring?)
(See exhibition photos at monicachurch.org.)
Then there is Monica, still the artist, but also the mom of her 6 year old daughter. Taylor. stealing herself from that full time job, only to shift a focus from formalism and abstract to personal and realism – remembering well the realities of motherhood: chauffeuring, doctoring, nursing, teaching, cooking, and how it is when things go right or wrong in your child’s day to day life. (and, in fact, yours as well, like sleep deprivation, focus problems, worry etc.)
Still there are pictures to be made, an artist’s fertile mind to be tended. “Hoola hoops, bubble wands, and potty chairs” floating from preoccupations with Taylor’s childhood experiences onto her “canvases” She recalls a time she began researching fertility and birth rituals while… pregnant. Seeing Pre-Islamic Kyrgyz and Uzbek suzanis (marriage bed quilts) feature circular motifs in vibrant reds, pinks, oranges, that represent the sun, moon, the heavens, flowers, or pomegranates -- all symbols of fertility --resonated deeply… So she moves from “Hey, Little Red Bird” a delightful and amusing oil painting, composed to the rhythm of her loving motherly heartbeat in 2003 to a deadly quieting installation “The Silent Spaces” in 2006 of wall mounted eggshells set inside wall scribed geometric parameters – recalling moose heads and other sorts of trophies of life never to be regained. Oh well.
And finally, there is the Monica who stands apart as a remarkably skilled craftsperson with provocative and timely visual commentary on stuff in our lives that Really Matters. She suggests prophesy through bird imagery, literature and media text, and eventually, during our conversation, quotes Shakespeare’s Macbeth “fair is foul, and foul is fair”, also the title of etchings which pair birds and humans.
Here is where I contacted Leigh Williams, Shakespeare scholar and Dutchess Community College Professor, to help me out. Puns and dark humor often pass me by, like witches in the night. And getting back to Macbeth, Leigh interprets “fair is foul “ etc. as an indication that the normal course of things is about to be upset, and adds that it also hints to the playgoer that you can't always tell by looking at a person if she or he will be "fair" or "foul". Does this mean…..is Monica debating free will ….a turn of events, no matter what? Or, can I still imagine - if only I had washed my hands?
Now, fast forward:
Monica Church sees a world that looks like we may not have any control, but begs the question through gorgeous prints of body part imagery, either zoomed in or hacked off, I’m not sure which. Then with a seductive palette of colors, you look and look, until it doesn’t really matter what you’re looking at any more. You’ve entered, like morning meditation, sitting, in the moment (Where’s history? Where’s prophesy?) and nothing else matters. (Until of course you pick up the New York Times, drink your coffee, drowning that morning freshness in news of poverty, slavery, hurricanes, large home improvement stores cropping up all over the place, de-improving habitats and our planet, in general with nasty building materials and large footprints, shenanigans of politics, college tuition escalates to $50,000 per year with corporate lenders, oh and homeland security which will sooner or later begin to ‘protect’ us from all Korean people.
Fly Away Little Bird , Monica’s upcoming one person show about to launch in Beacon, is a must- see and I’ll tell you why. (plus it’s free, if you can afford the gas) Addressing painful ideas about loss of (human) control and the frustrations of political and organizational manipulations of information etc. she is begging us -beautifully, intelligently, poignantly - to Look, Pause, React. Do Something. (See website: stepitup2007.org.) Don’t Wait… a unique voice amongst us – nothing holy or magical. It’s Taylor’s hoola hoops or robin’s eggs, or the artist’s ivory soap in her work, “Washing and Wishing” handing over iconic messages that help us to connect to our own species and heed the rightful warnings before things get really out of hand.
In a post visit email Monica writes, “My artwork is moving from universal themes to global issues – global health…ecology, chemicals in breast milk, literacy, the disappearance of the honeybees….I want the work to cause people to turn outward. Will someone read the next article about the potential avian flu pandemic after seeing my (work) because they found (it) confusing….amusing….? I hope so, she writes. I’m searching for a different type of connection with viewers…
Monica d. Church studied printmaking and painting, received her MFA from the University of Kentucky in 1993, a fellowship recipient at Woman’s Studio Workshop for a 6 week artist’s residency. Her work is exhibited throughout the country.
She lives and works in Poughkeepsie, NY with her husband, Robert Brigham, a diplomatic historian, Vassar College Professor, author of many books including, Argument Without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy, co-authored with Robert S McNamara and James G. Blight and, Is Iraq Another Vietnam? a more recent publication.
Monica is a 2006-07 recipient of a Dutchess County Arts Council Individual Artist's Grant in Digital Arts. Her exhibit in Beacon at Go North Gallery on Main Street opens Saturday, May 5th with an opening reception from 6-9pm.
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