Unspoken Dialogues

Unspoken Dialogues
Location: Ewing Gallery


I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition. All of the pieces in the Unspoken Dialogues exhibit related to the theme of visual narratives. This theme really added an interesting twist to the entire exhibit. With a few of the narratives, I felt like the artwork could be a narrative of my own.

The first thing I saw, and my favorite part of the exhibit, was the ABC Book by Avigail Manneberg. I really liked the way she created this artwork by stitching the scenes into fabric. I liked the quaint and crafty quality of needlework, but I also really enjoyed how these scenes were not your typical seen-on-a-pillow-in-your-grandma's-house needlework. The pieces moved out of the world of crafty hobbies and into the realm of fine art. I also really liked this series because I could relate to it so personally. The scenes depicted were very normal, every-day shots from life in Berlin. I spent two weeks last year in Berlin and this previous semester I studied abroad in Germany, so many of the pictures were of things I saw everyday during those two times. I especially liked how she chose to depict mundane objects such as the "Altglascontainer," which is a uniquely shaped container where you recycle glass. These containers are normal to the average German, but to the American exchange student, these funny shaped vessels are new and memorable. Her stitched depiction of this one mundane object brought back a tidal wave of memories which composed a unique narrative all my own.

I also enjoyed the disturbing paintings of Appalachian serpent handlers by Gary Monroe. Although the paintings were really creepy, I think the style he painted them in and the subject matter were extremely interesting. The paintings were based on the style of classical Renaissance religious and mythological art. Thus, the scenes were extremely dramatic and vividly colored. I'm glad he chose to paint them in this style because the dramatic nature of his style only further emphasized the bizarre subject matter of the paintings. Although these paintings were scary and unsettling, I just couldn't turn my eyes away from them.

On a final note, I also really enjoyed the Ewing Gallery in general as an exhibition space. One main feature I like about the gallery is it's convenience for me (since three quarters of my classes are in the Art and Architecture Building) and it's lack of entrance fee. Free is always better for me as a poor college student. I also like the setup of the Ewing Gallery...it's large enough to display a good amount of artwork, but not so large as to overwhelm you. Thus, my entire experience was very nice.