Committed to Memory

By Elin Spring

Memory is fickle and fleeting. From the entirety of our life’s events and the histories passed down to us, our recollections are colored by a medley of perceptions and feelings. What we remember – and how – instills our lives with meaning and directs our actions. That sense of consequence resounds through the current gathering of four engrossing exhibitions on view at Gallery Kayafas in Boston’s South End through October 17^th, 2020 by appointment.

Gallery view of installation by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

At the entrance to Gallery Kayafas, an installation piece by Astrid Reischwitz literally sets the table for a journey across four narratives that are each beguiling and profound in their own way. A small dining table beset by the dirt and stones of a foreign homeland is adorned in crisp embroidered linens and set with toppled fine china, ripped photographs and other artifacts torn from the past. They have been transported, piecemeal, into the present in an allegory for the nature of memories.

“Shadow and Light” 2019 by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“The Fall of the Double-Headed Eagle” 2019 by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

In The Fabric of Memory, Astrid Reischwitz assembles intricate photographic tapestries in an exploration of generational memory. By hand-stitching across collaged images that include ancestral embroidered textiles, archival snapshots and current photographs that were all made in the small German farming village of her youth, she connects past and present. The interplay of current narratives with symbolic clues to her family heritage develops not only a deep sense of continuity but a sparkling visual tension. The mirroring of elements like positive and negative imagery, front and back facing embroidery, and strips of echoing colors and patterns contrast her artistic precision with the elusiveness of stories from past generations. Reischwitz’s own embroidered designs are intentionally partial representations of her ancestral linens, emphasizing the fragmentary and ephemeral nature of recollection. In a grouping of three identical photographs entitled “Memory” only the embroidery changes, like shifting memories over time. In her striking compositions, Reischwitz weaves beauty with intrigue and metaphor with mystery.

“Secrets” 2019 by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“Daughter of Thistles” 2020 by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Installation view of “1st Memory”, “2nd Memory” and “3rd Memory” 2019 by Astrid Reischwitz, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas (photo by Elin Spring).

Installation view of Requiem for the Innocent by John Willis, in collaboration with poet Robin Behn and composer Matan Rubinstein, courtesy of the artists and Gallery Kayafas, Boston (photo by Elin Spring).

Requiem for the Innocent #60, 2019 by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Requiem for the Innocent #47, 2019 by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

A looped projection of text by poet Robin Behn opens Requiem for the Innocent: El Paso and Beyond, an installation of nineteen photographs by John Willis, each accompanied by a small speaker playing intervals of original music by Matan Rubinstein. Focused on the gathered ephemera that Willis photographed at an enormous impromptu memorial for victims of the senseless killings at an El Paso, Texas Walmart in August 2019, the multi-sensory exhibit serves as an exaltation and a mourning. Large unframed prints line the gallery, presenting a wall of bright flowers in a cacophony of vibrant color, each symbolizing a memorial for one soul. Closer inspection reveals wilting blooms still in their plastic wrappings, some with price tags still attached, seemingly ripped as suddenly from life as the victims. Also apparent is the detritus of human activity – American flags, drinking straws, star-spangled garlands – that give each larger-than-life piece immediacy and individuality. Discordant, meandering music moves between speakers and fades in and out, evoking the unintended paths our lives can take, amidst a din of persistent violence. Behn’s projected text poetically envelopes gut-wrenching facts about gun violence, legislative policies, and hate crimes, guiding the exhibition into a realm of advocacy. Willis’ fragile flowers, Rubinstein’s sorrowful rejoinder and Behn’s lyrical, iterative revelations immerse viewers in a complex rush of emotions that resound with every act of senseless violence.

Requiem for the Innocent #13, 2019 by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

“Water Protectors in prayer, Oceti Sakowin Camp”, 2016 from the series Mni Wiconi, Honoring the Water Protectors by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

In a separate series, Mni Wiconi, Honoring the Water Protectors, Willis documents prayerful and peaceful efforts by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies to resist the Dakota Access Pipeline from running through their sacred lands and threatening their sole source of water. Embedded with a resistance movement that included participants from over 300 Indian nations, Willis gained an unusual insider perspective. His portraits tell a poignant story of the desperate, hopeful aspirations of a native people trying to preserve their right to ancestral land and memories.

From the series and handmade cyanotype cloth book there’s a place I want to take you, 2019, by Vanessa Leroy, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.

Installation view of cloth cyanotypes from the book there’s a place i want to take you, 2019 by Vanessa Leroy, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas (photo by Elin Spring).

In the gallery’s alcove, Vanessa Leroy presents her handcrafted book of cyanotypes printed on cloth, there’s a place i want to take you. In the book and accompanying pairs of prints on the wall, Leroy has assembled old family pictures, photographs she made recently, and some of her 5th grade journal entries, along with illustrations, text and lyrics. The cloth prints render the deep blues of her cyanotypes with nostalgia rather than sorrow and unify her ensemble of fragmented memories. Lined notebook diary entries recall a jumble of her childhood ambitions, which prophetically include “photographer.” Leroy often pairs these with landscapes in symbolically rotated orientations that feature an impressive mid-tonal range. there’s a place I want to take you possesses an inviting, sensual synergy that transforms a personal scrapbook of childhood memories into a flowing and remarkable narrative.

Installation view of cloth cyanotypes from the book there’s a place i want to take you, 2019 by Vanessa Leroy, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas (photo by Elin Spring).

For information about these exhibits and for gallery hours, appointments and protocols, go to: http://www.gallerykayafas.com/

Feature Image: “Pleading with police officers in Mandan to consider water for the health of their children, grandchildren and future generations.” 2016 from the series Mni Wiconi, Honoring the Water Protectors by John Willis, courtesy of the artist and Gallery Kayafas, Boston.