Post 5- HOME HERE GALLERY EXHIBITION- Iris G.

HOME HERE GALLERY EXHIBITION

Katelyn Halpern, Yes/No

 Katelyn Halpern, originally from Austin, Texas, and now living in New Jersey, often creates art about peace, intimate relationships, and the experience of moving through the world in a feminine body.

Her Yes/No series is all about making the viewer stop and think about the seemingly simple questions on the paper. Halpern intentionally gives the audience a very limited choice of answers, just "yes" or "no". This complicates the process and forces the viewer into a "moment of suspension." By not giving a clear answer herself, she shifts the focus from the artwork to the viewer's own thinking and reasoning. For her, the real art is the nuance and complexity of the choices we make when faced with rigid and binary choice.

Cheryl R. Riley, Appropriation Bag

    Cheryl R. Riley is a multi-media contemporary artist from Houston, Texas. Born in 1952, she is an artist and designer whose work explores the connections and similarities between cultures, specifically her African, European, and Southern American heritage. Her artworks often explore themes of family, rituals, gender, resilience, and childhood.

    Riley uses her "Appropriation Bags" to express how art has become similar to "fast fashion", meaning art is something for people to enjoy or be distracted by for a quick 15 minutes before moving on to the next trend. It's a critique of how art no longer feels sustainable and how artists only get a moment in the spotlight rather than being supported throughout their careers. The bags are made out of unique magazine ads and editorials to further show how quickly things go in and out of fashion. She puts her bags behind plexiglass to mimic the care and preciousness museums and galleries give to their artworks, turning what looks like an everyday, mundane item into an important and protected piece of art. Rile also doesn't try to force a narrative or idea on the viewer because she believes that once she shares her art with the audience, it's up to us to ask questions and come to our own conclusions.

Jin Jung, Something Happened Here

   Jin Jung, born in Seoul, Korea, is a contemporary artist and teacher who creates work about finding a sense of belonging or "home" within our history and the places we've lived. She believes that where we belong isn't just a static location on a map, but a collection of our past experiences as individuals and as a community.

    Jung's installation, "Something Happened Here," connects with her main goal of reclaiming public history by turning personal stories into physical art. Jung's artwork invites the audience to join in on a "shared memory" of the spaces we inhabit. She helps us find our own sense of place and belonging in the world.

Post Questions

• Why have you chosen these works to review? 

• I chose these three artists because of how they challenged my first impressions. I was drawn to Katelyn Halpern’s "Yes/No" series because, while the artwork looks very simple, I love the idea that the "real" art is actually the way it makes the viewer stop and ponder. It forces you to deal with the complexity of a question when you're only given two choices.

• I found Cheryl R. Riley’s "Appropriation Bags" interesting because it felt peculiar to see a shopping bag behind plexiglass. I initially thought it was an antique or a historical object, and after reading the catalogue, I think that’s really ironic since the piece is actually a critique of 'fast fashion' and the fleeting nature of fads and trends.

• Jin Jung’s "Something Happened Here" installation stood out because it sparked ideas for me about the immigrant experience. It made me realize that "where we belong" isn't chained to just one location and it never has been. Together, these pieces show how art can take everyday items or simple questions and turn them into deep conversations about identity, memory and taking a moment to stop and think.

• How might they be activist or interventions? 

• Katelyn Halpern’s artwork can be considered activism because it puts the audience in a position where they must answer a question with only a "yes" or a "no." By only offering two choices, she eliminates any nuance or middle ground, "forcing" the viewer to pick between two options that likely do not accurately express their full views. This is an intervention in how we think, making us confront the complexity of our own opinions.

• I also believe Cheryl R. Riley’s artwork is a critique of consumerism, which acts as activism against a culture where we are so quick to buy and glorify items only until they go out of fashion. Her "Appropriation Bags" look like everyday shopping bags, which starts a conversation about how art and artists cannot truly thrive in a 'disposable' consumer culture that only values the next big trend.

• Finally, Jin Jung’s work is perhaps the most direct social intervention, as she is actively reclaiming public spaces to tell the stories of people who are often left out of history. Her installations remind us that our identities are tied to the actual soil and architecture of where we live. The activism I see is in turning personal memories into public monuments, proving that 'where we belong' is a shared history that we all have a part in building.

• How do they connect to your own artwork (if you make artwork) or your life?

• My artwork focuses on my journey and experience navigating Bipolar II Disorder. I mainly use my art to externalize my thoughts and emotions, making them concrete instead of abstract things, which helps me release tension and energy. I see a connection between my process and the artists in this catalogue because we are all trying to make sense of things that are often invisible and hard to understand with words alone.

• What is the curatorial narrative of the exhibition as far as you can see and read?

• Based on the title of the exhibition and the other artworks, I'd say the main theme is about questioning what is "home", memories, history and human connections. The artists in the catalogue seem to agree that "home" isn't just a physical building or place, but a collection of our personal stories and the specific places where we’ve lived. By turning these abstract ideas into physical objects, the exhibition encourages us to look closer at how our pasts and our surroundings actually shape us as people.

• Who are the artists in the exhibition? 
• Laia Cabrera, Nicole DeMaio, Isabelle Duverger, Jaz Graf, Katelyn Halpern, Jin Jung, Pat Lay, Tina Maneca, Cheryl R. Riley, Jennifer Roberts.