In life, as in nature, surviving requires a mix of holding together and letting go. This is also true collectively, as a society, and individually as artists and creators. BREATH AND BONE, a new installation by artists Meg Bloom and Cyra Levenson will be on view at City Gallery from May 2 - June 1. The Artist Reception on Saturday, May 10, 2 p.m. - 5 p.m., is open to the public.
“The work in the show is very much about our process — how we are trying to move in the world and move as creators,” explains City Gallery member Meg Bloom. This is the second time Bloom has collaborated in an exhibit with Cyra Levenson. “We have a shared aesthetic,” says Levenson. “For both of us, the things we make have a life of their own, and they have a conversation with each other.”
Levenson, new to weaving, is inspired by weavers who work in all kinds of materials — metal, willow, driftwood, fibers, even weavers of people and stories. She has been studying at the Brooklyn (NY) studio Loop of the Loom which teaches a Japanese technique called Saori weaving. “The work in this exhibition is what came from the practice of allowing the loom, the fibers, the movements of the warp and weft to guide me,” she explains. “My hope is to be a clear channel for images and ideas to come through. I am listening for textures, lines, and felt sensations. The smell of the wool, my gratitude for the sheep, the plants, and the other weavers are all in the work.”
No stranger to working with fibers and textures, much of Meg Bloom’s current artwork consists of handmade paper sculptures from kozo and abaca fibers. “Some have added pigment, many have embedded plant matter, or anything else I get my hands on,” she says. She also creates mixed media collages and installations.
“Finding beauty in the imperfect, acknowledging moments of change, and engaging with the process of transformation form the basis of my work,” Bloom explains. “My art references nature and attempts, metaphorically through layering process and form, to address the broader social and environmental issues we face.”
Similar to Levenson, Bloom says “I desire to go with the flow but more. I think of the changes as a floe, and I want to be part of the changes constantly taking place, so I am deliberate in allowing the work to reveal itself. Thus the warped, bent, tangled, frayed, torn, smashed, shattered details, and the art’s insistence/persistence on survival, regrowth, and transformation.”
BREATH AND BONE is free and open to the public. City Gallery is located at 994 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511. Gallery hours are Friday - Sunday, 12 p.m. - 4 p.m., or by appointment. For further information please contact City Gallery, info@city-gallery.org, www.city-gallery.org.
