From Farm to Fork (& Function)
Gallery 1 at Overture Center for the Arts, 201 State St, Madison, Wi. Show runs June 30 – Sept. 7, 2014.
The Synopsis
8ft goat and little gallery visitor… “I’m too sexy…” (Petruchio) • acrylic on mdf • 8ft tall • ©S.V. Medaris
S.V. Medaris and Alicia Rheal have been raising animals for food and as models for their artwork for over a decade, exploring the relationship humans have with the animals raised for consumption as well as those cared for in companionship. By using wooden cut-outs of life-size livestock, and traditional paintings and prints mounted to block-printed fabric wallpaper–all elements depicting the different seasons on the farm–the imagery leads the viewers sequentially from spring to summer to the fall harvest as visitors walk the length of the gallery.
When planning this show, we decided we wanted to create an event — an experience — to lead the viewer through the seasons on the farm from Spring and birth, lightness and warmth (yellows and greens)…to the lushness of summer and rapid growth…and finally to the fall harvest with images of what’s to come for all of the animals rasied for meat.
To draw people into the space, we planned from the beginning to have 2- 8ft figures at the entrance of the long gallery (see Petruchio, above), so that people could see something out of the ordinary all the way from the front entrances. I learned from the first show there, that if you have something big and colorful and unusual right in the entrance of the gallery, that people were more than likely to come and get a closer look. We both knew that we did NOT want to have a show where there’s a line of rectangles (regularly framed work) on both walls. The problem with that, is that these long galleries are passageways to…the Capitol Theatre, the bathrooms, etc., that is, people are passing through the space all the time. If we were to have predictable shapes/framed pieces one after the other down this long gallery space, chances are slim we would pique people’s interest.
Fabric wallpaper was something I wanted in here from the start. It would help to draw the viewer out of a typical gallery space and into a living room or kitchen that we would decorate with my relief prints and Alicia’s paintings.
Toile de jouy was the inspiration for the summer wallpaper. This (and the others) are actually block-prints on fabric.
8ft tall goat, fabric squares all approx 8ft wide • ©S.V. Medaris
Really take a look
Some things you might not notice with a quick run-through of the show… Hanging/plucked chicken, bones, offal, axes, chicken feet (all within the pattern of the fall harvest/ burgundy cloth wallpaper at end of gallery wall). See the printing process of wallpaper on my Takach Press.
Bones-n-offal pattern used for fall harvest (burgundy) fabric wallpaper (click on image to enlarge)
Farm to Fork Gallery Talk and Local Food Sampling
Join artists Alicia Rheal & S.V. Medaris…
… for a gallery talk about their Farm to Fork exhibit ( & farmer Kriss Marion as she educates and entertains you with her stories of life on Circle M Market Farm…. AND enjoy delicious, locally made (and often locally sourced) samples from Landmark Creamery, Underground Meats, Chocolaterian Café, Pickle Jar BBQ, Four Elements Herb Farm, Barham Gardens (Aronia), Inn Serendipity, and more…. AND peruse the wares of local artisans including Galpaca Farm, Market Weight Press, & Circle M Market Farm.
Free and open to the public.
Rotunda Stage, Overture Center for the Arts Thursday, Sept 4, 5-8pm.
Talk by Alicia, Kriss, and SV: 5:30-6:30p.
And see our Farm to Fork Show before it disappears just days later (look for the 8ft horse and the 8ft goat&emdash;Petruchio, above)….
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