Review by Kristen Scholfield-Sweet
The current exhibition at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery, by Iris Steigemann, is an expression of Topophilia: the affective bond between a person and a place. The art works of Adrift above the Arctic Circle are symbols that have the power to suggest the whole. The whole of a place -- with no editing, shaping, distorting through politics, commercial interests or customs. In our daily lives, primary experience is often screened by multiple layers of distortion, yet art can clear this fog.
Here are some ways in which I think Iris has met this critical challenge of clear seeing.
Observation is the heart of any art process. If we cannot see what lies before us, we cannot describe it. The arctic landscapes rendered here are without preconceptions and received understandings. Iris enables us to see ice, and its human presence, as vivid, direct, clear.
Gaze into an image of an underwater portion of ice. Notice what your internal dialog is telling you about these representations of tunnels, fractures and fissures. What do you already associate with this depth of blue?
Composition is the foundation of all image making. The relationship between the parts of an image
determines the look, feel and meaning of the work. Choose several works and notice different relationships between the amount of picture area given to the sky, to below the waterline. How does the composition influence your feelings when the scale of the ice below the surface dominates, when the land mass dominates?
Complexity originates in contradiction. Often when we try and simplify an image, we create an
incomplete description. Something feels false. The power of these images in part derives from how
they contain irreconcilable differences.
Notice how some works create meaning through complex contradictions. Feel the tension between the fragility of human structures and the strength of nature, between the size of the composition and the scale of the subject, between the ability to see, and what we know cannot be seen.
Feel Topophilia, a love of place.
Join Iris for a slide illustrated talk about her travels above the Arctic Circle this coming Friday evening at 7 pm at the Gallery.
Have a second look at Adrift above the Arctic Circle, at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery
Friday July 12th from 6 – 9 pm, Saturday and Sunday the 13th and 14th from 2 – 6 pm.
