June Issue 2002
Spoleto Festival USA 2002 Visual Arts -
A Review
by Paul C. Figueroa
Upon discovering Charleston in 1919 Alfred
Hutty - who became one of the leading artists of the Charleston
Renaissance - wrote his wife "Come quickly, have found heaven."
At the end of the century, the visual arts component of the Festival
has sent out a similar message from its curators and general manager
to contemporary artists who work in the medium of installation
or site specific art. "Come quickly, have found the motherload
of memory." Charleston, an icon for the culture of the South,
is finding its history unwrapped, examined and reassembled by
various international and national artists in the second year
of "Evoking History" an ambitious three-year program.
Mary Jane Jacob curates this investigation called The Memory
of Water. It is the third exhibition organized by the Festival
upon the premise that the city should be a wellspring for creating
art. It follows the 1997 exhibition Human/Nature curated
by John Beardsley and Jacob's initial success of Places with
a Past (1991) an exhibition that not only rocked Charleston
and its visitors but nearly sunk the goodship Spoleto. However
the third time is not a charm.
On a hot humid May day the Festival opened the musty memories
found in the dwellings and spaces of Charleston to a group of
press writers. Listening to the curator one heard all the buzz
words and phrases from competitive grant applications to foundations
or persuasive arguments - unique partnerships, universality of
place, diversity, and stakeholders - to mention but a few. One
site, at 35 Calhoun, has been transformed into a meeting place
for former residents of the Borough, the former African American
neighborhood more commonly called Ansonborough. Visitors are welcome
to listen to discussions and recollections. These will be documented
in various media and will become part of the holdings at the Avery
Research Center for African American History and Culture, according
to Curator Mary Jane Jacob. However, what this has to do with
visual arts is a stretch. There are no memorabilia or photographs
or any interpretations at this site, although it is a wonderful
opportunity to trace the families and stories of this part of
Charleston's past and place that too few of us heard. The top
floor will be used as a base camp for the group of 14 high school
students identified and trained as interpreters for the exhibition.
Next door, at 35 Calhoun, J. Morgan Puett has created a Cottage
Industry. It requires a bit of investigation to discover the
layers of this installation by this fashion designer and conceptual
artist. Just like Charleston history, a Cottage Industry
is richly layered with a store, workshop and design studio. At
the front on the first floor are a cut room and a sewing room
with workers busy producing the pieces that will be assembled
into the finished garment. Before moving upstairs to the employee
lounge or computer parlor for production patterns, you pass through
the dyeing room. It is a fascinating glimpse into fashion, history
and installation art.
Further down the street, towards Liberty Square, one encounters
Fortress by Nari Ward at the corner of Calhoun and Washington
Streets. Here the exchanging histories public program shares the
research on the palmetto and South Carolina State flag with Wylma
Wates. Although her talk revealed the meanings and histories of
the flag, there was little if any direct response to the artist's
fortress containing a palmetto tree of concrete and iron in various
stages of its life cycle. When entering the fortress one encounters
words and places related to the Borough such as DeeDex Snack Bar.
There is a sense of collective memory from these white opaque
words read inside a glass fortress. Although small in scale compared
to old Citadel at Marion Square this structure evokes the memories
of forts in Charleston and their important roles in our culture.
Next, one finds Carvella by Marc Latamie at Calhoun and
Concord Streets. It's a small wooden structure recalling the artist's
impressions of a neighborhood grocery in his birthplace of Martinique.
Row upon row of products produce a memory of pop art. Are these
Andy Warhol paintings come alive or Claes Oldenburg sculptures
with hard outlines? The most effective message from this work
is its juxtaposition to the port of Charleston; the cranes and
countless containers stacked one upon another. If this piece is
the past and its memory, it is overwhelmed by the present.
The highlight of this introduction to the exhibit was the evening
cruise to Morris Island for the unveiling of A Lighthouse Woman
by Kim Sooja. When it works, this is a marvelous combination
of art and engineering. Lately the piece has received more publicity
for its failures. Over six to seven days, at low tides, the equipment,
generators, lights and stereo were assembled and installed at
the lighthouse. Enough watts are produced and sequenced with a
computer to quietly bathe the exterior in changing colors evoking
the breaths of history whether personal or cultural. The various
colors evoke hushed reactions and echo the Buddhist culture of
the artist. It is well worth a boat ride if you can find someone
or someway out there or head out to Folly Beach and catch the
show from the shore.
The past site specific art exhibitions have produced a defacto
public art for Charleston. For example, from 1991 the Charleston
single house by David Hammonds remains on the eastside on America
Street. Rice, Rattlesnakes and Rainwater by Martha Jackson-Jarvis
in 1997 is at St. Luke's Reformed Episcopal Church on Nassau Street.
Also from that year the Philip Simmons Garden by Pearl Fryar is
at 91 Anson Street behind St. John's Reformed Church. Is there
a pattern developing? From this year I guess that "Fortress"
will remain behind for us to ponder until the City develops the
Anson fields. Who knows, maybe the piece will be incorporated
into the African American museum.
Paul C. Figueroa has been a museum professional for 26 years. He has been intimately involved with Spoleto Festival USA's visual arts program since 1977 through the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston. Figueroa has also served as past President of the South Carolina Federation of Museums and served on Charleston's Convention & Visitors Bureau Board of Governors.
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