AUTUMNAL RITES

October 23 -November 23
Avenue A Storefront Galleries
110-112 Avenue A, Turners Falls
Autumnal rites, like Day of the Dead, All Saints Day, and Hallows’ Eve, are among the oldest celebrated on earth. In every country these observances occur after the harvest, when the barren earth gives passage to the souls lying beneath it. Autumnal Rites is a group exhibition by Greenfield Community College students that explores the thin veil between this world and the spirit world. Curated by professor Jen Simms and RiverCulture director Suzanne LoManto. Artists include Hannah Chase, Johanna Hoogendyk, Anthony Ahearn, Drew Orluk, Peter Fath, and Bret Leighton.

Hannah Chase, The Shroud, 2015
Made with used teabags and dead flowers, it is an investigation on deterioration. The tea bags have been stained with rust and rotting food. The patterns and texture that are left imprinted on the cloth are the outlined ghosts of the object.

Hannah Chase, Absent, 2015
Burnt sugar and wire. This protoplasmic form winds and twists around itself. It is an exploration with an unpredictable medium, an un-contained wildness, a creature without a body.

Drew Orluck, Scull Shrine
The process for my sculptures started with a base object, such as glass bottle, wax, or foil. I then covered those objects with old newspaper and then clay and molded them into the desired figures, and sometimes it took two or more base objects to make them. Once I’ve made the figure, what I did for the all of the objects was paint on them with acrylic and oil paints. Lastly, on the majority of the figures I have also melted wax on them to give a more grotesque effect to the figures.

Johanna Hoogendyk, Portraits of the Dead, 2015
A series of images in charcoal and mixed media, inspired by Victorian post-mortem photography. These images explore the memory of an individual in history, and how identity and specific information is lost overtime.

Anthony Ahearn, Forest of Souls, Dancing Trees
For a while in my sketch book I studied different species of trees. I would explore and draw the trees I see day to day or make drawings of pictures I have taken in the past. I always wondered what it would be like to be a tree and to see all the events they experience over time. From this I began to create these trees with eyes and sometimes having them interact with one another. I developed several images of dense forests and mystical landscapes.

Peter Fath, Ma Ligne de Chance, 2015
The piece consists of a little plaster man strung up from above and tied from below by thin black thread. I wanted to elicit a sense of being stuck in one place, but pulled in opposite directions by two extremes – do or don’t, yes or no, life or death. The man is also wrapped from head to toe in the string, evoking a feeling of suffocation, of an inability to do or say anything about the current situation

Bret Leighton (videos) Dog Safari at the Flying Wall / and ELECTRO- Ghost
My pieces are made to highlight the deeper states of thought through viewing video imagery. The Composition and visual elements are symbolic and suggestive of our psychological state. The video addresses the concept of self and introspection. Original music was made in collaboration with Paul root and Matty d. To create an organic soundscape enhancing the feel of the video.