486 Harrison Avenue
First Friday Receptions: Jan 6 & Feb 3, 5-8
Artist Talk/Artist Reception: Sat Jan 21, 3
Andy Moerlein
(See the show at avianlanguage.blogspot.com)
Avian Language is a debut solo exhibition for Andy Moerlein at Boston Sculptors Gallery. This show features a forest of shaped wood, altered trees and ceramic birds in conversation.
Moerlein's work has a story teller's attitude - that tightrope walk between naturalism and symbolism. The ceramic birds fill the wooden structures with a communication that is evident yet ambivalent. Some snuggle together; others turn their backs to each other while harnessed together by bonds of tension. The birds seem ordinary - an embodiment of stillness - frozen in place, yet each conveys a gesture that implies movement. It seems that there is more to be understood than is portrayed. Stones convey, birds imply dialogue, and materials whisper of contradiction and illusion. These birds at rest are prone to startle and fly at any moment.
Donna Dodson's second solo exhibition of her iconic wood sculptures, Flock Together, presents sixteen different interpretations of a bird-headed female form.
In this series, Dodson is exploring the idea that similar types of people choose to congregate with other like-minded souls, even if the similarities are beneath the skin, feather or breed, and not immediately apparent or obvious to the viewer.
This series started with Cardinal, as if women could hold high office in the Catholic Church. Further imaginings led to the creation of Little Red Riding Hood, who is anything but little; White Stork, who is carrying a baby in her tummy instead of her beak; and Culture Vulture, who is highly cultured, deeply ravenous and hollow - lurking on the edges of culture to fill up.
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