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June 25, 2004
Aroeste layers meaning in art
Libertad is elegant but full of humor, peaceful but not overly
serious.
ELIZABETH SHEFRIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Libertad, Spanish for "freedom," is the title
of Miriam Aroeste's exhibit of ceramic works and architectural wall
hangings currently on display at sugarandsugar gallery in Gastown.
Aroeste, a Mexican Jewish artist, and the daughter of an 81-year-old
bronze sculptor, worked in the film industry before moving on to
the medium of ceramics. According to her artist's statement, the
exhibit "is about opening up, letting go, being in the moment
and, especially, flying." The work is deceptively simple, but
catches you with the layered meanings of good poetry.
Much of the work is fired in the raku method. Raku is a way of firing
clay that creates unpredictable patterns and iridescent surfaces.
The pieces are fired at a low temperature and then glazed with special
raku glazes. They are then refired at a very high temperature and
removed, glowing hot from the kiln, with the glazes still molten,
and placed in combustible material like newspaper or sawdust, which
ignite immediately. They are covered to contain the oxygen, and
the resulting chemical reaction creates random, but often very beautiful
effects. This method was originally associated with ceramics for
Japanese tea ceremonies.
The gallery space is extensive, and shows the work to an advantage.
Sugarandsugar describes itself as a gallery by day and a rental
facility for private and corporate clients by night. It includes
tasteful cocktail lounges, a dance floor, a grand piano and other
entertainment facilities. The rotating art displays on the walls
are part of the package. In this exhibit, the long spaces between
the pieces give them breathing room, and allow the viewers to contemplate,
as they move from one piece to another.
I liked this exhibit very much. It's elegant but full of whimsical
humor, peaceful without being overly serious. The first piece you
see when you come in the gallery is entitled "Geometrical Thinking"
and is a wall-mounted ceramic piece, floating within a black frame
to which it is not attached in any way. Across the hall sits "Sequence,"
four square ceramic pieces containing one knob, two knobs, four
knobs and four slightly embellished knobs. This series leaves me
thinking about the concept of sequence, and what represents and
does not represent a natural order of things.
I am struck by four faces labelled "Physical," "Emotional,"
"Spiritual" and "Mental." "Physical"
has iguana-like creatures etched in the clay, and I can almost feel
them crawling across my face. "Emotional" has peaceful
spirals, but also some cracks – a state to which we can surely
all relate. "Spiritual" has a face adorned with vertical
areas of dark and light, whereas in "Mental" the divisions
are horizontal and involve mirror images of numbers and letters.
The artist speaks in her statement about clay being a great medium
to connect with her inner child, and we see this depicted literally
in another series of faces. "Dialogue with my Inner Child"
consists of a woman's face containing another tiny face sitting
in the middle of her forehead. In "Further Dialogue with my
Inner Child," the same tiny face is now upside down. And, in
"Liberating my Inner Child," it has emerged as a winged
cherub.
Another four-panel series called "Freedom" includes "El
Ultimo Adios," ("The Last Goodbye"), a worm coming
out of an apple, a butterfly breaking out of a square,and a corset
untied.
"The work is about opening, wanting to let go, being freer
and freer for me," Aroeste said in an interview. "I'm
not trying to liberate from anybody, but accepting myself."
Sometimes ceramic circles and squares are tied to their frames,
as in "Third Eye" or "Holding the Space." In
the latter, ceramic straws mark half the square. Sometimes they
just float within the frames, and some have no frames at all. Aroeste
has managed to make simple forms suggest abstract concepts. "Refind
the Shape," with its suspended circles, squares and diamonds,
makes me think of those journeys in which we redefine the shape
of our lives.
The exhibit also contains a number of enchanting torsos. In one
piece, three urns delicately suggest female bodies. In another,
little square nipples and a navel are part of a torso elegantly
corrugated like cardboard. In a similar piece, the nipples and navel
are a more conventional round shape. The sensuality is subtle but
insistent.
"I go with my own imagination," Aroeste told the Bulletin.
"The end result is what it is. Each piece has its own story,
but I'm quite happy to hear other people's point of view."
Libertad is at sugarandsugar at 99 Powell St. until July 3. Gallery
hours are Monday to Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Sima Elizabeth Shefrin is a visual artist, curator and
community arts co-ordinator.
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