The artists mine an extraordinary range of possibilities as the work is based on their personal family experiences, oral tales, and religious beliefs.  Hollingsworth’s multi-media works of frenetic pencil lines, spray paint and stencils focus on the “folklore” of religious iconography. Small colorful and textured works on paper in shadow boxes become “relics” that linearly mount the wall with as much precision-and varied interpretation- as the Stations of the Cross.  Pakron’s recent works were created during his journey home to Mississippi summer 2010. The black and white photos focus on nonrepresentational, non-vanity portraits of close friends and family members who tell the “folklore” of his South.  Using the familiarity of the face as a template, his process involves hand painting the developer in the darkroom intentionally revealing certain parts of the negative. From abstract panels to black and white photography, Hollingsworth and Pakron work to discover the basis of our common humanity, the imperatives of our human existence that puts folklore study at the very center of humanistic study.

Rebekah Jacob responds:  “These two artists are significant in spearheading the contemporary art movement in Charleston.  At 169 King St, a white cube will be translated into a dynamic space.  The monumental installation will evocate that young, innovative talent is working here.  We are at a critical point for moving the Charleston art scene into a more progressive phase , and I am excited to have both artists on board to launch our fall program.”

Notable Charleston artists have created masks within their artistic styles, using traditional materials like feathers, beads, and ribbons, as well as non-traditional materials like sweet grass and metal from a chicken coup.  Participating artists include: Lisa Shimko, Sarah Haynes, William Bates, Anne Darby Parker, Jeff Kopish, Leigh Magar, Johnny Tucker, Hirona Matsuda, Kristi Ryba, Timothy Pakron, Benjamin Hollingsworth, Kenton James, among others. Most artists will be present at the event.

Please note that Redy to Wear is a precursor to its sister-party, The Red Party, which will occur later in October on the 28^th. Both events raise awareness for its mission*, and emphasize the need for trained, skilled artisans in America, particularly Charleston.  All proceeds from both events help support the education of ACBA’s students. For tickets and information on the upcoming Red Party (October 28th), please call 843-577-5245 or visit the ACBA website at www.buildingartscollege.us.

Impermanence is the result of an almost three year exploration of the devastation caused by the fire that ravished Kendall Messick’s home in 2006. In nearly 200 images of the scene he has oscillated between his typical portrait and documentary practice and a more aestheticized pictorization to create photographs that are metonymic and act as a space of meditation and scrutiny.  Many of these images are reminiscent of Aaron Siskind’s metaphoric abstract photographs from the 1960s that portray dripping paint, graffiti and peeling walls. However, unlike Siskind, Messick does not wish to impart a transcendent sensibility but instead, he calls attention to details and privileges a particular type of note taking.  One sees in the development of such images, rendered over a period of one year, the artist’s attempt to assess the damage. Messick indicates that in the weeks after the fire, he spent much of his time itemizing his loss for insurance purposes. His abstract images convey a similar type of enumeration, not only of specific objects but also of the space that housed these objects. These images are simultaneously emotive and analytic, their visual impact owed to their composition. Messick’s use of a square format causes the image to be pushed out towards the edges of the pictorial field leaving no room for additional narrative. This, coupled with their diminutive size as compared to other works in the series, afford them a specimen-like quality.

As part of this body of work Messick has also produced surreal images that bring the viewer closer to the facts of the fire.  In drawing us nearer, the more concentrated looking that is demanded by the abstract pictures gives way to a visual pulling back, suggesting the palpable weight of Messick’s reaction to the disaster.  The artist’s method of managing the constant unfolding of ruin is to translate it into a series of vignettes that reveal more of the destroyed space. In contrast to the abstract pictures, these works recall film stills and are sharply photographed with acerbic color that calls Mannerist painting to mind. In them, charred corridors lead to rooms filled with scorched and mangled objects. In one, an open door reveals disembodied heads bathed in a ethereal light while in another, dripping streaks stain eerie blue walls. These elements make them enigmatic as their seemingly constructed nature belies the actuality of the event. One is caused to wonder how these heads came to be in this room, in this way? What is Messick trying to articulate as he invites the viewer to move with him down lonely corridors? The probing, almost forensic nature of some of his images suggests that Messick is also searching for the answers to such queries.

In Corapeake (1995) and The Projectionist (2007), two portrait-based projects that seek to record the passing of communities and the transience of life, Messick embedded himself in the ever-changing lives of his subjects in order to record the tenor of each passing day. These works contain a biographical element as Messick has always been drawn to such narratives.   At first glance Impermanence appears to be a departure from such ruminations, however it is arguably the most intimate of his photo essays and is the first time he has turned his camera onto himself so extensively. In a series of pictures of objects entitled Conflagrations he recalls his portraitist and biographical devices to examine the fire’s aftermath. His likeness can be found in these objects, as they are beloved possessions that for the artist resurrect lost craftsmanship. His penchant for reclaiming the past may account for their fetishist treatment in his images. Portraits of head forms once used by haberdashers, fishing gigs traditionally forged by blacksmiths and Steuben glass vases cloaked in the fire’s residue become otherworldly, seeming to materialize as transient things. It is this space of interstitiality that reveals the photo-essay’s redemptive meaning.  The images reflect Messick’s sense of wonder in the rediscovery of his objects. His goal in rendering them is to highlight the distinctiveness of change—to move from a universal discourse about the destruction to a more personal celebration of transformation.

A conflagration is an all-consuming fire typically started by human intervention. The heat from such a fire can be so intense that it creates a flow of oxygen, which allows it to feed on itself.  Angel, a workman who while using solvent to strip varnish from a room’s wooden detailing, inadvertently struck his steal wool pad against a metal surface starting Messick’s conflagration.  In the exhibition, Angel’s image appears in a set of black and white prints, some of which were taken just hours after Messick arrived on the scene. The color reality that describes the conflagration and predominates Messick’s other pictures is transformed in these images to indicate a change in the artist’s mood. Messick often uses this tonal variation to affect an emotional shift. Capitalizing on their warm tones, the photographer seems to be offering up a requiem by locating the images in a room that contains the last evidentiary remnants of the fire. Here, the site as artifact emphasizes the magnitude of the disaster presenting the fire as both historic and contemporary events.

Andrea Douglas

Curator of Exhibitions

University of Virginia Art Museum

“I’m definitely letting coordinated moments of chaos start to talk to each other. I create a dialogue that seems to tell a story, but you’re not sure what. I feel the connection, but it’s not a direct narrative, it’s deeper than that. It’s more a starting point for people to examine, why is this against this? Because to me, that’s what makes the art larger, more important—when it can mean so many things to different people.”

Masks will be provided, as well as beads, feathers, and other decorations.  Feel free to create your own masks and access your own materials.  The mask is not limited to the theme or genre of red-it can be any color or design.  If you create your own mask, please make it “wearable,” as the goal is to have the buyer integrate the mask into his/her costume for the Red Party.

Deadline:  By Oct 1-please deliver the mask to Rebekah Jacob Gallery.  No pick-ups. Gallery hours 10AM-5:30PM.

Concept: The masks will exhibited and auctioned Thursday, Oct 6 between 6-8PM to raise money for the American College of the Building Arts in historic downtown Charleston.

Contact the gallery with any questions:  843.937.9222 P/  rjacob@rebekahjacobgallery.com

In her King Street gallery, Jacob strives to show the full potential of photography as a fine art form. Although she also exhibits paintings and sculpted furniture, contemporary photographs are her forte. Since the gallery opened in 2007 she’s helped popularize the medium in the area, captivating collectors with distinctive Southern art.

“My greatest risks have brought me my greatest returns,” says Jacob. “A lot of people said photography wouldn’t work here. It took a long time for me to develop credibility, but once I did I think I can say that I spearheaded the photography market…”

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