23 Apr 2018

Dialogues: Medium and Materiality

New Art Center in Newton

Reviewed by David Curcio

Most group exhibition titles create a preemptive veneer of legitimacy while revealing nothing about the work, as does that of this Lesley student-alum show. At first, the muteness seemed to characterize the art itself - deftly crafted but dull objects, just so much more vapid fiber art, video, mounted string, and Japan paper pouring from the ceiling.

A second visit the next day brought me back to pieces that prompted a crashing recollection that they had haunted my soul during the night. Then they proceeded to haunt it again. The noirish wall sculpture Blood Refund II by Kathline Carr, with its fabric book illustrated in graphite and gunpowder, stinks of murder, and the nearby gun mounted to the wall points at your heart. Nancy Roy-Meyer's Fair is an unholy, day-glo spawn of John Waters and Aileen Wuornos. Sarah Bates Washburn's rug The United States of China, Made in India is one of the rare objects of poignant commentary to emerge from the horrors of contemporary politics.