As the daily hustle that is downtown Bangor continues on its hurried pace through the next traffic light, a quiet room brightened by spotlights awaits for visitors as silent figures keep watch from the walls, waiting to grab your attention.
The 2015 Winter Exhibition at the University of Maine Museum of Art (UMMA) and the pieces that have been chosen for display vary in both medium and theme. This is something museum Director George Kinghorn has worked hard to accomplish. “One thing we are mindful of when planning our exhibitions is that we keep them diverse, so we can appeal to a wide range of audiences,” Kinghorn said. “We also want to introduce the community to a lot of different styles and genres in media.”
The first part of the exhibition sits within the side showcase room and is entitled “Infra/Structure” by artist Rachel Hellmann. This collection, given by the artist herself, is a fantastic example of the blending between painting and sculpture, as the pieces displayed are bright, colorful examples of architectural and interior design.
“These start out as wooden forms that she meticulously builds, and then after they’re built, glued and sanded, she goes about painting the kinds of bands and the rigid forms of geometry,” Kinghorn said.
It is from the meticulous work by Hellmann on the shape of the pieces that allows these wall sculptures to be experienced as they are. Though they hang on walls as would a painting on canvas, these forms are actually three-dimensional and can be experienced from multiple angles.
The next part of the exhibition lies behind a set of double doors, within the heart of the museum itself. Immediately after walking in, the striking images of Deborah Cornell and Barbara Putnam’s exhibit entitled “Global Climate Change: The Dance of Contingencies” appears. Here, one can experience the mixing of political and scientific interpretation within carefully formed pieces of art. A couple of highlights in particular to this exhibit include Putnam’s “What If They Had Lived?” and Cornell’s “Games of Chance.”
In “What If They Had Lived?,” a quilted graph hangs, as a thick red line descends across a plane of block printed images, representing the extinction of a few species of jellyfish, after warming ocean temperatures caused them to migrate north, only to freeze and perish.
While Putnam asks the viewer to reflect on the cause of extinction via climate change, Cornell speculates on the global consequences. Cornell’s “Games of Chance” is a series of digital prints that combines images of gambling — cards, dominos, etc. — with depictions of environmental effects — typhoons, hurricanes, etc.
“There is a lot of different layering on these compositions, with some focused even at the microscopic level,” Kinghorn said.
Using these layers of images in her work, Cornell is able to clearly define the world’s current state of environmental affairs, begging the viewer to think more of these issues.
While Putnam and Cornell’s section of the exhibit is largely political, the last part waits within a dim-lit section full of surreal, dream-like works. Looking around, one can see vintage-looking photographs on the walls, with some sculptural figures on display in the corners. This section is entitled “King and Clown,” created by New York artist Dan Estabrook.
The surreal and slightly disturbing content within this section is focused heavily on the art of salt print and calotype photography, which is an early form of photography from the 1800’s that used silver iodide coating on paper.
“These works are photo based, but the type of photography he does is not digital,” Kinghorn said. “He is a contemporary artist, but the processes he does are the earliest types that existed when photography was still being invented.”
On these images however, Estabrook took the freedom of adding details by implementing watercolor and graphite, giving these works a surrealist and nightmarish quality.
“The subject matter is dark,” Kinghorn said. The figures in the corners seem to fit right in to the mood of this part of the exhibit too, as one of them, called “Young John,” sits with his arm outstretched, holding a small tin cup. The boyish figure, made from wood, cloth and beeswax, appears deformed and seems as if he’s begging for some human sympathy or understanding, with his cup waiting at the ready.
The dreamlike and eerie feel of Estabrook’s section of the exhibit is completely unlike that of its counterparts, allowing museum visitors to pick and choose what they enjoy and experience most.
“Our role as a museum is to open people up to different kinds of artwork and expand minds,” Kinghorn said, “I think it’s very important that people take advantage of the cultural resources available, and be open to seeing new things.”
The winter exhibit will be open to the public until March 21 and is free of charge to all visitors. The museum is open Monday through Saturday between the hours of 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.