Summer Reading and Storm Cycle
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One cool thing about show downtime is that I get to catch up on my reading. I’ve always done a lot of reading, but most of what I read these days are often business books and art-related magazines since I like to keep up on what’s going on in the art world. Most of the mags I read are craft related publications like The Crafts Report, AmericanStyle, American Craft, Lapidary Journal. My most favorite mag is Ornament, which focuses on jewelry, wearable art, tribal and ethnic adornment, and beadwork. If you’re at all interested in any of these topics, Ornament is a fabulous magazine to pick up.
Today I was reading the spring issue of Ornament and saw that they did a story on one of my favorite jewelry artists, Thomas Mann. Thomas Mann has been a contemporary craft artist for about 30 years. He creates mixed media jewelry and craft art using a variety industrial materials like plastics, found objects along with gemstones, and silver to develop jewelry with romantic themes and images he calls Techno-Romantic. He’s one of the first mixed media jewelers I’ve ever encountered and his work partly influenced some of my earlier jewelry pieces.
The Ornament article reviewed Mr. Mann’s latest exhibition at The Bellevue Arts Museum. Thomas Mann’s studio is based in New Orleans, and like all New Orleans residents, his life and business was turned upside down by Hurricane Katrina last year. Like most great artists, he turned his experience into art and the result of his experience is a series of artworks called Storm Cycle“. The art series is made up of 20 framed wall panels made with photographs, found objects from the actual debris from New Orleans, and text with each panel dealing with an aspect of the physical and emotional aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Each panel also includes a detachable brooch that you can actually remove and wear, a feature that brings the artwork beyond something that you merely hang on the walls, but something that you can take with you.
Storm Cycle is more than a personal account of the aftereffects of the Katrina disaster, but also contain observations and commentary on the corruption that hindered the recovery of New Orleans. The article describes one piece called Blue Roofs, a panel made of blue roofing tarp, plexiglass, and an aerial photograph of buildings with roofs covered in blue tarp. In the text of this particular panel, Mann describes how while FEMA paid for strong high quality tarps, the middlemen who actually acquired the tarps bought cheaper, lightweight tarps and pocketed the price difference. The difference in quality resulted in tarps flying off buildings and leaving damaged roofs unprotected.
The Storm Cycle exhibition ran at The Bellevue Art Museum through May 21, but it will be traveling to other museums throughout the country. The next exhibition date will be in New Orleans itself at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art from July 28th to September 3. If you’re interested in seeing the full schedule of the Storm Cycle exhibition, visit Mr. Mann’s website for more details. While I would love to jet off to go see this exhibition in person, I guess I’ll have to content myself with getting the exhibition catalog instead (also available at Mr. Mann’s website).
[tags]jewelry, artists, jewelers, Thomas Mann, Hurricane Katrina, exhibitions[/tags]
