Posted by Brian Slattery on Sunday, March 15, 2020
How does one visit an art gallery in the midst of social isolation and quarantine? It seems all roads still, somehow, lead to Facebook.
Nasty Women CT brought its latest exhibit, “Rituals of Resistance,” to the people Sunday morning, broadcasting a tour on Facebook Live through the exhibition’s Facebook page. The exhibit is actually at the Urban Collective’s space at 85 Willow St. Luciana McClure, one of the curators of the exhibition, started the tour facing the phone. Speaking into the internet void, she introduced herself and the exhibit. She assured the 20 or so viewers of the Facebook Live feed that she was completely alone. With the press of a button, the phone switched camera views, and she began the tour.
“Rituals of Resistance” seemed to have extra resonance in social isolation, whether the power lay in solitary pieces (like Karen Ponzio’s “No” banner) or in collective action. It was heartening to see artists reclaiming their personhood and resist fear and oppression. There were a series of handmade protest signs. Other works, such as “Our Democracy is FUBAR” by Riah Valley, or “Suburban Scream” by Katherine Dufall (not sure how to spell and can’t seem to find it listed anywhere) had new realms of significance given the state of the world.
Pausing a few seconds at every work, McClure, at viewer request — the accompanying Facebook chatbox bubbled with praise and asked for artist, title, and medium information — named each artist, work title, and medium. A few labels had fallen, leaving a bit of mystery, but McClure assured viewers that the labels would be fixed for the next video she planned on doing.
The act of naming each artist granted a power to each work not generally felt when wandering through a gallery. The eyes can gloss over labels, or only ever read artists, but the auditory power of hearing artist and work title gave each work its own privileged space on screen, in a moment of isolation, or spotlight. Hearing light curatorial commentary, with McClure sporadically lingering over details on certain works, or noting which of the works were one of her favorites, lent the air of an audio tour.
The flattening of the full space of the gallery, and the removal of freedom of motion and time on the viewer’s part, created a very different experience of an exhibition. Even as each work was highlighted on its own, the scale and spatial relationships between works felt different. Two dimensional images were flattened again onto the screen of Facebook Live, and sculptures were by necessity reduced to two dimensional images. But even while the ability to holistically engage with the exhibition was reduced, the tradeoff of individually engaging with each piece in isolation on screen provided an excellent opportunity to consider each work on its own.
McClure proved an excellent guide, even as she remarked that the tours would be better in the future.
“Thank you, everybody! I hope you’re enjoying this. I’m learning as I go as I’m doing this,” she said. The ebullient chat window of now 30 people thanked her and commented on the power of the pieces. She also noted that many of the works on display were for sale, and that viewers could find all the artists on Facebook and Instagram. She also remarked that she would find a way to include the four video artists whose works were part of “Rituals of Resistance.”
After her complete, piece-by-piece walkthrough of the exhibit, McClure turned the camera in a slow pan of the entire room, piecing together every individual work into their rightful positions in space. Works that seemed large were made small, and vice versa. The room seemed so small on a phone camera, but it contained multitudes.
Viewership by then had steadily increased to over 40 people, commenting with questions, encouragement, and appreciation of the art and artists as the tour progressed.
McClure finished with a short address to those watching. “Stay home, stay safe, and we can find a way to share artwork and support each other through this. Now is the time to figure out the power of collective action,” she said.
