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HASSELL’S PROVOCATIVE INTENTIONS AT BASILICA INDUSTRIA
Culminating this years’ body of work, artist Emily Hassell will present an ambitious exhibition at The Basilica Industria in Hudson NY, opening on June 21st 2008. This will be the first solo showing of the artist’s art in the USA.
Some have said the work of this artist is "provocative", "full of insight", "beautiful" and "conflictive". The uses of her multi-cultural influences resound as they ask us to consider the role and relationship of youth, art, and the social importance they bring to the art world as we know it. It is not asking you to be comfortable with it, but rather provoke thought on multiple yet corresponding levels.
The found objects she uses in her work, are fragmented pieces of history, words, drawings, metals, lyrical overtures her expression of a world of unknown natural depths and silence. The fragmented word phrases she engraves on her pieces call your attention as she places them contextually on the wooden, cracked layers off of which she seems to gain momentum in her subject matter. Many times showing bare and transparent textures, she maintains truthfulness in her lines as she unfurls times past, present and future.
The artist's use of rough lines and characters stolen out of time, are impulsively placed, sometimes carrying bones, mounted severed branches, as well as feathers or antique objects. The impatience and desire she has to mould form out of two dimensional pieces, illustrates in part her innocence, vulnerability, strength, ingenuity and thought form. Settling for less than comfortable, she is always trying to pin point the tensions and the relationships of life and human nature. She entices the characters in her work to become storytellers for us, so that from their point of view we gain deeper understanding of the-make up and complexity of existence itself.
The artist states: "I am currently finishing a body of work that includes 20-30 medium and large mixed media wall pieces, 8 plus sculptures, a selection of published poetry, photography, an environmental installation, and Catalogue, all work dating 2007-2008. I saw the Basilica last October, I immediately asked the owner, Patrick Doyle, about showing my work there. It caters highly to the scale and content of my art which ranges from 3ft to 9 ft long and 3ft to 15 ft high. The Basilica parallels in a sense my creative energy and ideal artistic process because it is one of the largest 'undeveloped' cultural spaces in the area. It also allows me to have complete creative control over my work, in content, format and presentation."