Megan Grierson presents work that explores the importance of creating space to process trauma and grief while Aaron DeShields addresses the architectural and infrastructural aesthetics of consumption.
Eviscerate- Ordering Extra Spicy Blues—best title ever, makes me want tacos—appears to fold, drip and ooze like DeShields squeezed it bare-handed. It takes a true craftsman to manipulate brass and copper and make it look this malleable.
The association with ancient fertility statues is obvious in Anima. Grierson makes it contemporary as a hermaphrodite with 10-pack abs rather than a soft, plump body and exaggerated breasts. The stepped goddess reads architectural in her latest incarnation. She’s still powerful and humbly remains anonymous.
Rust Belt looks like something found laying around a scrap yard. This could have belonged to a once coveted structural feature and has since been unceremoniously discarded to join the piles of quickly accumulating artifacts of modern existence. It’s been scavenged and repurposed to a position of admiration, oxidizing beautifully.
Transmutation #2 gives the viewer an actual place of respite. An installation of concrete bricks, cast with a comforting wave pattern making them airy yet grounding, invites the viewer to sit, rest and reconnect the mind with the body in order to regain a sense of wholeness.
None of these pieces look as heavy as they actually are. A perfect metaphor for how cavalier we’ve become, hungrily acquiring the newest whatever, only to find ourselves quickly bored and onto the next distraction. The consequences for this shallow pursuit are a hole in the soul and an alarming growth of global trash. Grierson and DeShields invite the viewer to weigh these actions and consider a shift toward healing ourselves along with our planet.
Megan Grierson and Aaron DeShields Depth and Density on view now through July 17th at Hatch Art 3456 Evaline, Hamtramck, MI
*all images are mine
SHOWS OPEN THIS WEEKEND- check websites for hours
M Contemporary Art / What Pipeline
Library Street Collective / Scarab Club
Public Pool / Detroit Artists Market
Art Mile Detroit / Simone DeSousa Gallery
"The consequences for this shallow pursuit are a hole in the soul and an alarming growth of global trash. Grierson and DeShields invite the viewer to weigh these actions and consider a shift toward healing ourselves along with our planet." The nail has been hit directly on the head.