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November 21, 2003
A new meaning for fly-paper
Shining light through physical bodies results in two-dimensional
art.
SIMA ELIZABETH SHEFRIN SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN
Mia Weinberg's current exhibit, Open Wings, offers us an array
of the artist's capturings of the natural world. Elegant photograms,
luminous X-ray-like images of insects and other natural objects,
present themselves for our attention. The works suggest an intriguing
combination of strength and fragility.
A photogram is a photographic image produced without a camera or
film. An object is placed in an enlarger, or directly on top of
photosensitive paper, in a darkroom. Light is shone through the
object onto the paper, which is then developed. Delicate dragonflies,
crane flies, seeds and leaves show up in a magical format, looking
almost like photographic negatives. The images can never be duplicated
because of the ever-changing nature of the organic materials that
are used to create them.
The title of the show, Open Wings, refers to a series of images
of insects with each wing a mirror image of the other. Most are
black and white but some include delicate touches of color. One
larger piece depicts the shadowy form of a dragonfly, with surprisingly
natural-looking wings formed by shining light through maps of the
West End.
I first encountered Weinberg's work in 1994 at the Temple Sholom
Gallery. She had just graduated from art school and was the first
winner of the Syvi Krisman Memorial Award, for a body of work entitled
Preface to the Telling. This work dealt directly with the theme
of her family and her Jewish heritage.
I was curious about the connection between the artist's earlier
work and her current imagery. I asked her to describe some of the
work she had created 10 years ago at the beginning of her career.
"There was one sculptural piece in that show – the
tallit, the prayer shawl that was starched," said Weinberg.
"It was called 'Following the Code' and it was a prayer shawl
that I had made. The shawl was starched with sugar and the tassels
were dyed with tea, and it was rigid, taking the form of someone's
shoulders, so for me it was about absence. It was about my heritage,
but also about the loss of my ancestors."
Other pieces in that early exhibit depicted photographic images
of her grandparents and great-grandparents, printed on muslin. Her
connections with family members were symbolized by objects as incidental
as a postcard or a recipe for coffee cake.
Later, Weinberg accompanied her father to Germany (her parents had
left in 1939) to visit his childhood home. From this journey she
created "Fractured Legacy," an installation built on layers
of memory, slides of her father's house, rubbings from the gravestones,
including some which bore her family name, fragments of a 1931 map
of the village and an audio presentation with fragments of her father's
story, her own ponderings, and the sound of the song birds he grew
up with.
"I think the fragments have a lot to do with what I call emotional
inheritance – what I've gained from my father, from his father
and the ancestors," the artist told the Bulletin. "It's
all about fragments, interpretation as it gets passed down through
the generations. Nothing is complete and I can never know the whole
thing. It is fragile."
For Weinberg, there is a clear bridge between the fragility of stories
and memories and the fragility of the natural world. She speaks
of "a direct connection between the structure of natural material,
the way the veins in a leaf or an insect wing get smaller and smaller
– like a map." For her, the graphic image of these skeletons
represents choices – her parents' choices, their parents' choices
and her choices.
"I started going from my father's stories, my ancestors' stories
to something more universal, trying to see ways of applying that
to others who didn't share exactly the same story," she said.
This exhibit was created with fellow artist Kate Collie. The two
women have been working collaboratively since 1999. In this show,
Weinberg created the raw material for the work but the pieces didn't
happen until the two of them joined forces.
"I'm very detail oriented and she's very much edges and big
picture," Weinberg explained. "Certain things about this
work would never have happened without her being part of the process."
Open Wings will be at Studio Blue, 1540 West 2nd Ave., until Nov.
30. Gallery hours are Thursday-Sunday, noon-4 p.m. The artist will
be in attendance Nov. 27-29. You can also see Weinberg's work at
the Eastside Culture Crawl this weekend (Nov. 21-23) at 884 East
Georgia St. or on an ongoing basis at the Casa Art Gallery at 555
West Georgia.
Sima Elizabeth Shefrin is a fabric artist, writer and
banner maker. She is the artist/co-ordinator of the Middle East
Peace Quilt, which has been touring North America since 1999.
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