No blood is spilled inside the Gormley Gallery, but war is raging.
In the gallery?s multimedia show Visions of Conflict: Rendering Dissent, 14 works by five artists address war, particularly American actions in Iraq.
“The works are engaging and open-ended,” said Geoff Delanoy, director of Gormley Gallery. “They raise issues but allow enough of a dialogue between the art and the viewer. Art isn?t always didactic.”
Racism, class discrimination, American consumerism and dependence on foreign oil also are among the hot topics artists explore at Visions, an offsite Artscape exhibit.
Delanoy selected artists based on the power of their works and how their pieces coincided with the space and dovetailed with other artists, he said.
“A lot of the work captured the current political situation. This exhibit seemed like something I had to do ? it seemed so pressing and timely I felt I needed to provide a venue for these artists,” he said.
Works on exhibit by the artist Scrapworm are recreations of leaflets that the United States dropped over villages in the Middle East and an installation created with newspaper headlines and photographs.
Exhibiting artist Lillian Bayley contributed three pieces to the show: The installation Democracy Dominos and two posters referencing historical prints, Goya?s “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” and Durer?s “Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”
For her interpretation of the “Four Horsemen,” Bayley replaced Pestilence, War, Famine and Death?s faces with George W. Bush?s face.
After cutting, sanding and painting 52 dominoes for “Democracy Dominoes,” Bayley engraved the outlines of Middle Eastern countries that are not democracies, she said.
“It comments on the U.S. interest in making Iraq a democracy and the misguided notion that we could force [the country] to be a democracy and that [democracy] would spread in a domino effect,” she said.
Visions of Conflict carries meaning.
However, “that?s not to say it isn?t aesthetically pleasing,” Delanoy said.
“It participates in the realm of beauty, but it?s still provocative. That?s part of the evolution of art ? it should engage the mind as well as our vision,” he said.
IF YOU GO
» Visions of Conflict: Rendering Dissent
College of Notre Dame of Maryland
4701 N. Charles St., Baltimore
410-532-5582
Opening reception: 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday
