Anila Quayyum Agha’s “Teardrop (After Robert Irwin),” 2016, polished stainless steel with mirror finished, halogen lighting (photo courtesy of Talley Dunn Gallery, Dallas, Texas).
The Cathy and Jesse Marion Art Gallery at SUNY Fredonia is the final venue for “Tradition Interrupted,” a traveling exhibition that explores the methods used by artists to conflate contemporary ideas with traditional art and craft in a range of media, from rugs and quilts to metal and ceramics.
The exhibition was organized by Bedford Art Gallery, at the Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, Calif., and has traveled to 10 other museums and galleries across the United States.
“Tradition Interrupted” opens on Tuesday, Sept. 3 and will be on display through Friday, Nov. 22. A reception with hors d’oeuvres and beverages takes place on Friday Sept. 6, from 6 to 9 p.m. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
The Marion Art Gallery is located on the ground floor of Rockefeller Arts Center on the Fredonia campus at 280 Central Ave, Fredonia.
Participating artists are: Anila Quayyum Agha, Pakistan; Faig Ahmed, Azerbaijan; Camille Eskell, U.S.; Mounir Fatmi, Morocco; Ana Gómez, Mexico; Shirin Hosseinvand, Iran; Dinh Q. Lê, Vietnam; Steven Young Lee, U.S.; Jaydan Moore, U.S.; Ramekon O’Arwisters, U.S.; Jason Seife, U.S.; and Masami Teraoka, Japan.
“The artists in this exhibition are merging the age-old with innovation and revisioning culturally historic ideas to create hybrid images or objects that interrupt traditional practice but still collaborate with the past,” said “Tradition Interrupted” Curator Carrie Lederer. “After generations of crafting and creating, many traditional practices continue to hold center stage and visually define a culture. Today, artists are unraveling certain traits and facets of these ancient customs to redefine or reclaim them for our contemporary world.”
For many of the artists, everyday objects are sources of powerful agency to recall memories in danger of being forgotten, or to call into question revisionist histories.
Anila Quayyum Agha’s “Teardrop” poetically reflects the plight and suspension of the refugee who is in motion but is restrained by many factors. Her use of light, reflection, and shadow allows viewers to contemplate the basic “black and white” ideas considered by many refugees: pain and peace, strength and struggle, life and death. Adorned with delicate geometric and floral cutouts found in ancient Islamic motifs, the steel form of Agha’s sculpture appears fragile, but its material is resilient, hardy, and even stubborn in nature — very much like humans.
Faig Ahmed uses computer technology to sketch lines and shapes that are woven into his signature rugs. Working with local weavers in Azerbaijan, Ahmed constructs the rugs using traditional, hand-woven methods and materials. The resulting work – a reinterpreted Middle Eastern rug that appears to be dripping or melting into a puddle – addresses complex ideas of identity, loss, and change. He distorts the traditional architecture of rugs, pixilating, melting and blowing up the imagery until it becomes an object of optical fantasy. The result is a juxtaposition of a craft steeped in history and religion made uncanny through the use of present-day technology and cultural trends.
Mounir Fatmi uses discarded tech and media objects such as typewriters and VHS tapes as materials in his work to interrogate religion, collective memory, and the dichotomy of East versus West. His installation “Maximum Sensation” is comprised of 14 skateboards, each covered with a fragment of a Muslim prayer rug. This mashup of Western popular culture and Eastern religion implores viewers to rethink potential commonalities between the two, as well as emphasizes how globalization makes this cross-pollination possible.
To create her ceramics, Ana Gómez collaborates with Mexican artisans who use traditional pigments, designs, and glaze techniques. For her piece, “Maruchan,” Gómez crafted 30 containers emblazoned with the “Maruchan” logo – a brand recognized worldwide as a symbol of processed convenience on the go. The container’s mobility plays into another significant trend that Gómez has observed: it’s not just what we eat, but where we eat it. She has noted that the family roles and social dynamics that were once woven through our lives and communities are now “diluted” and replaced by lives that are always in motion.
Dinh Q Lê is best known for his unique photo weavings that layer strips taken from documentary photographs and Hollywood film stills representing Vietnam. The weaving technique he used was passed down to him from his aunt, as a traditional method of creating Vietnamese grass mats. At 10 years old, Lê moved from his birth place in Vietnam to America, but as an adult returned and lived in Ho Chi Minh City until his untimely death from a stroke in April. His collages reflect the environmental shifts of his upbringing, as well as expose how Vietnamese perspectives clash with American imperialist visions of his home country.
Lederer explained that the artists of “Tradition Interrupted” attempt to reconsider the universal, ageless truths as well as the comfortable and uncomfortable histories of their heritage. By doing so, they unearth transmissions of the past as a means to explore the future. The final task is left to the viewer: to consider aspects of the past, embrace current and future traditions, and reflect on what these shifts and changes mean to all of us moving forward.
The Marion Art Gallery presentation of “Tradition Interrupted” is supported by the Cathy and Jesse Marion Endowment Fund, as well as the Friends of Rockefeller Arts Center. Gallery hours are: Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 4 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 6 p.m.; Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. or by appointment. For more information about the exhibition or to schedule a free group tour, contact Director Barbara Räcker or call (716) 673-4897.