Monday, February 8, 2010

Image from Blues Chapel and Last Word

Susan Lenz wrote about the exhibition, reception, and posted images for Blues Chapel and Last Words on her blog.

CHECK IT OUT HERE!

Cynthia Boiter's blog post on Blues Chapel and Last Words

Check out Cynthia Boiter's blog HERE!

February 4, 2010

Susan Lenz & Blues Chapel, women’s work, working women, women who WORK & Eboniramm

I’ve written about my friend, local fiber artist Susan Lenz, before — that’s because in many ways she is one of my she-roes. The work that Susan does resonates with me on so many different levels — much of it going back to the core of who I am. Many of you lovely readers may know that, in addition to writing about beer and arts and travel, I am also an adjunct lecturer on women’s and gender studies at the University of South Carolina. I came to this academic place in my life after spending many years studying sociology, focusing on gender roles and women’s experiences. When I was in grad school in DC, I read Alice Walker’s book — still one of the most important books in my life — In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens. In this book, Walker talks about how poor, unschooled, and under-valued women have not always had the luxury of canvases on which to express their creativity, and therefore, they captured canvases wherever they could find them. In the way they planted their gardens, for example, with the deep green of sweet peppers juxtaposed against shiny red tomatoes — in the arrangements of carefully canned produce on their pantry shelves — in the quilts and hooked rugs they made for their homes. Thus, in so many ways, the work that women traditionally did became, for many women, an expression of the creativity residing in their souls fighting its way out. This is yet another reason why no one has the right to say what is art or not. Art is gut and soul — the quilter and embroiderer feel this no less than the ceramicist or sculptor.

Susan Lenz’s primary medium of choice is embroidery. She calls herself a contemporary embroiderer — I call her a genius. Susan has taken this traditionally female art medium from the quiet laps of working women (all women are working women — whether they get paid for it or not; and by the way, most don’t) and placed it on the walls of galleries and art exhibits where it rightly belongs. But don’t expect samplers and doilies when you see Susan Lenz’s work — expect to be moved, shocked, overwhelmed, elated, and devastated. It can be intense.

Susan’s upcoming exhibit at Gallery 80808 on Lady Street is called Blues Chapel and Last Words. In it she has taken the images of 24 blues divas and adorned them with the gilded glory anyone who made the contributions they did, deserve. People like Ma Rainey, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, and Nina Simone. Susan has literally coronated these women with golden halos endowing them with dignity, engendering reverence.

I’m lifting the following quote from Susan’s blog –

“Early female blues singers lived in a male dominated society, in a segregated country, and worked in an industry that took advantage of their lack of education and opportunity,” Lenz said. “Physical abuse, drug and alcohol dependence, and poverty plagued most. They struggled, made sacrifices, and sang of their woes. They helped change the world for today’s young, black, female vocalists.”

Last Words, the accompanying exhibit which has been integrated very well into this show, represents the miles and hours Susan spent visiting cemetaries, literally across continents, collecting silken grave rubbings from headstones and monuments then bringing them home and transforming them into 30 art quilts. The arrangement of the exhibit is such that if Blues Chapel represents the Church, then Last Words serves as the church yard.

The opening of the show is Friday night, February 5th from 6 to 8 pm, with a performance by local blues artist Eboniramm beginning at 7 Pm in conjunction with The Blue Martini, which shares a hall with Vista Studio’s gallery. Eboniramm will be the lady singing the blues in tribute to the artists we will all be honoring on Friday night. My friend, the artist Susan Lenz, included. The reception will end at 8, but the gallery will be open until midnight, and the exhibit will also remain open for viewing as well. Then at 9, Eboniramm will reprise and expand her tribute at the Blue Martini for a $5 cover charge.

It’s going to be a beautiful night — I hope I get to see you there.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Jeffrey Day's blog post on Blues Chapel and Last Words

Jefrfrey Day's BLOG is the best place to learn about art events in the Midlands and beyond! Check it out HERE!


Thursday, February 4, 2010

Don't even think about sleeping this weekend

Thursday, Feb. 4

Exhibitions take you from the church to the graveyard
Susan Lenz began working on her series “Blues Chapel” in 2006 and “Last Words” in 2008. She wasn’t thinking about it at the time, but it turns out they made good neighbors like a church and a graveyard.
“Blues Chapel,” an homage to women in the blues. and “Last Words,” fabric pieces based on gravestone rubbings, open today at Gallery 80808/Vista Studios.
“Blues Chapel” started as a part of a thematic show at the gallery, “The Blues on Lady Street,” to bemoan the never-ending streetscaping in front of the studios. Lenz admitted that she didn’t quite grasp the idea, but she did start learning about the blues, something she didn’t know much about. A strong feminist Lenz made 24 saint-like images of great women in the blues - Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday and Alberta Hunter and others. Many of these women had hard lives – suffering at the hands of the music industry, men, drugs and alcohol. (She pointed out that she was saying this two days after singer Beyonce won six Grammy Awards.)
These individual portraits grew into something bigger and turned into an installation complete with altar and candles in her tiny studio. Not long after, the Sumter Gallery of Art asked her to show the works in a much bigger space.

“Oh, I’m going to have to build a church,” Lenz said she thought at the time.
So she did adding “stained glass” pieces, a bigger altar, more candles and flowers and two church pews.

The genesis for this work was as random as for “Blues Chapel.” While at a residency in Maine in 2008, she was reading a book about quilting and it suggested using rubbings from graves in quilted fabric.
“I started doing these rubbings, but I thought it the back of my mind, ‘I’ll never use these,’” she said.

She was wrong about that. “Last Words” is made up of 30 grave rubbing quilts, 25 photo transfers with stitching and sheer fabrics embroidered with epitaphs.

Since stopping by those family plots in Maine, Lenz has done rubbings from California to Columbia and many places in between as well as England. The rubbings are from graves dating from 1596 to last year.

“I found one that said ‘Never accurate, but never dull,’” she said. Another for an artist couple (not yet dead) read “Actor to Ashes, Dancer to Dust.”
“You get a wonderful sense of these people,” Lenz said.

The show has a serious side. She wants people to think about how they will be and want to be remembered (not to mentioned disposed of.)
“I hope this opens up a dialogue for that to happen,” she said.

To help with that planning, the “Last Words” has sponsors: Shive Funeral Home and Fletcher Monuments. Both will have literature at the show. (Flipping open a monument book, Lenz was pleasantly surprised that a headstone could be had for $300.)


The artist had some extra work she wasn’t planning. When “Chapel” was shown in Denton, Texas, starting in November, one of the “stained-glass” pieces was sold. She figured the installation would work fine without that one piece. Then two weeks ago a Greenwood bank purchased the other five. (“Blues Chapel” has been shown several places; “Last Words” piece have been in regional, national and international exhibitions.)

“I've been working like crazy trying to create six new pieces,” Lenz said last weekend. “Same size, same ten-blue hours a piece It has been insane.”
(She finished them with a couple of days to spare.)
An opening reception takes place Friday from 6 to 8.

In conjunction with the show and just down the hallway at the Blue Martini singer Eboniramm performs tunes by many of the singers spotlighted in “Blues Chapel” at 7 p.m. The performance is free. For the second one at 9 p.m. admission is $5.

The show remains on display through Feb. 16. Because it is tied in to Blue Martini, the gallery will be open unusual hours: 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday, Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday Tuesday and Wednesday; noon to 6 Sunday.
The gallery, 808 Lady St., can be reached at 252-6134 and the Blue Martini at 256-2442.

The State Newspaper carries an article on Blues Chapel and Last Words!

Life & Style

Sunday, Feb. 07, 2010

Lenz' 'Blues Chapel' calls for reflection

Susan Lenz holds a special admiration for the sacrifices and hardships endured by some of the nation's most celebrated - and not so celebrated - female blues singers.

"They were true to their art. They took their hardships and they made music out of it," Lenz said.

But many died without the fanfare their artistic careers deserved, she said. "Many of these ladies deserve better."


It's with a passion for honoring those lives and encouraging others to reflect on their own that the Columbia fiber artist has opened "Blues Chapel" and "Last Words," at the Gallery 80808/Vista Studios.

The free exhibit, which opened Thursday, runs through Feb. 16.

"Blue Chapel," features 24 images of female blues artists that are positioned throughout a space that depicts a chapel and is filled with the sounds of blues music.

The accompanying "Last Words" is an abstract cemetery, featuring various gravestone rubbings that share the stories of the dead through the words and images carved in their gravestones.

The exhibit combines art quilts, mixed media photos, and fibers.

"Everything here is about creating memories," Lenz said.

Lenz first got the inspiration for "Blues Chapel" in 2005 while viewing an exhibit in the National Women in the Arts Museum in Washington, D.C., where staff members had created a room dedicated to blue singers.

"When I started this, I knew nothing about the blues," she said.

But while viewing the exhibit she was struck by the women's perseverance and their stories.

"Immediately, I got it. I got the sacrifices. I knew what the blues were about," she said. "When I was reading these bios, I could really identify with making art, even if people weren't paying attention."

So she wrote down the names, and has selected 24 of the 25 woman from that same list which includes Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Alberta Hunter.

Renz admits she settled on 24 singers rather than the original 25 because that number provided a better fit for her display. But she hopes viewers will be as moved by the women's stories as many have been by their music.

"Early female blues singers lived in a male-dominated society, in a segregated country and worked in an industry that took advantage of their lack of education and opportunity," Lenz said. "They struggled, made sacrifices, and sang of their woes. They helped change the world for today's young, black, female vocalists."

In the accompanying "Last Words," Lenz combines quilts of grave rubbing, photographic images of angels in mourning and a series of chiffon-stitched epitaphs to create a space about remembering.

She collected many of the stories found in the epitaphs while visiting various cemeteries around the United State and in England.

Her hope is that visitors to the display will reflect on their own lives, and she said what memories each person holds closest is up to them.

"I'm hoping they'll walk away with an ongoing dialogue in their mind about memory and remembrance," she said.

IF YOU GO

Blues Chapel and Last Words

WHERE: Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 808 Lady St., Columbia.

WHEN: Continues through Feb. 16.

GALLERY HOURS: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday, Friday and Saturday; noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.

ADMISSION: Free

Friday, February 5, 2010

Jeffrey Day's blog!

Blues Chapel and Last Words receives a wonderful article on Jeffrey Day's Carolina Culture Blog. CLICK HERE to access!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

SHOW SPONSORS



(Above: SHIVES FUNERAL HOME....sponsor for Blues Chapel and Last Words!)

The exhibition has been almost completely installed. Thanks to the talented help of friends: Dolly Patton and her daughter Sims, Mary Langston, Regan Reagan, Margaret Neville, and Kim Bendillo the work went smoothly and was fun! There's still some signage to finish and the lighting to set.....but otherwise, BLUES CHAPEL and LAST WORDS is nearly ready for the public.

The RECEPTION is on Friday, February 5 from 6 - 8.....even though the show stays open until MIDNIGHT. Eboniramm is performing for FREE at 7 PM in the Blue Martini....just down the hall.....my partner for the opening. (She'll be singing a second, expanded tribute at 9 PM with a mere $5 cover!)

(Above: The Christian Counseling Center. Sponsor for Blues Chapel and Last Words.)

MOST IMPORTANTLY.....LAST WORDS HAS THREE WONDERFUL AND EVER SO APPROPRIATE SPONSORS!


(Above: Fletcher Monuments.....Sponsor for Blues Chapel and Last Words. The COOLEST brochures will be available during the exhibition!)

Last Words is an exploration of final memories, the ways in which we mark our lives on earth. It poses important questions about how we remember others but also how we intent to be remembered ourselves. It asks, "What are your final wishes?" To this end, the exhibition sponsors are more than art supporters but places to help guide personal answers.