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OBERLIN PROFESSOR, JOHNNY COLEMAN, ART INSTALLATION ON DISPLAY AT HERE HERE GALLERY
SEPTEMBER 10, 2001-- "Rememory," a sound installation composed by artist Johnny Coleman, associate professor of studio art and African American studies at Oberlin College, will be on view from September 21 through November 18 at the Here Here Gallery in Cleveland, located at 1305 Euclid Ave. The exhibition is part of "Oberlin at the Here Here Gallery," an ongoing Oberlin arts satellite in Cleveland. Oberlin's Office of Sponsored Programs and by the Here Here Foundation Funding provided funding for the exhibition.
Coleman was invited to compose "Rememory" expressly for the Here Here Gallery.
The installation, a response to Toni Morrison's acclaimed novel Beloved, encompasses 9,000 square feet¨the entire first floor of the gallery space¨and relies heavily on aged oak posts and beams from barns, 300 feet of field corn, and 100 bales of straw that the artist gathered throughout Ohio.
Coleman says that a predominant feature of his work is its focus upon the spaces that people inhabit¨both physically and psychically. Architectural elements¨chairs, windows, and doors¨are what he calls "transitional spaces," or "points of entry and interior spaces of contemplation." Beloved, he says, "is constructed upon transitions: South to North, slave to self-defined, spirit to flesh. Each of these events represents a turning point, a crossroads. It is to this space of becoming that I return thematically within my work." Because much of Morrison's work has dealt with the historical richness of the Ohio landscape, Coleman believed that it was important to create his project here, in this landscape.
The project's genesis was a 1999 commission Coleman received from Toni Morrison to design a sculpture based upon her novel. Coleman says that in re-reading the book, he was "overwhelmed by the richness and clarity of Morrison's vision." The Nobel Prize-winning novelist is an acquaintance of Coleman's and has purchased some of his work.
Coleman's creative process for "Rememory" has been time-intensive. He spent one year on research, gathering materials, and construction¨and his work began with a short-term residency at Lake Erie College's B. K. Smith Gallery in October 2000. The result of that residency was a sculptural installation honoring his daughter, Nyima, and based upon the Beloved character Denver. The completed piece served as a conceptual and emotional foundation for what would follow: an installation Coleman composed (also for his daughter) at the Akron Museum of Art in February 2001.
It was the Akron project, "A Landscape Convinced: For Nyima," that helped Coleman conceive the shape of "Rememory" for the Here Here Gallery, a process that involved yet another year of his career. He spent time discovering, he says, "the resonance between the interior lives of Morrison's characters, the remnants of the mid-19th century Northern Kentucky and Southern Ohio landscape, and my own evolving understanding of the ongoing struggle towards an unconstrained psyche: freedom in the sense that Morrison is talking about. Collectively, the three projects [the installations at the Smith Gallery, the Akron Museum of Art, and the Here Here Gallery] compose a gift to my daughter, charting a process of becoming whole, self-defined, with spirit intact."
Oberlin at the Here Here Gallery is the result of a collaborative effort that has involved many in the Oberlin College arts community who have a vision for the gallery's pedagogical and artistic purpose. Part of the mission includes making opportunities available for faculty-designed workshops across disciplines, among them the development of curatorial skills and grant writing; production experience for students; the creation of new experimental works to be presented to the public; and interaction with audiences outside the academic arena. Coleman and his wife, Oberlin Associate Professor of Studio Art Nanette Yannuzzi-Macias, co-founded the project.
The Here Here Gallery is open three days each week. Hours are 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on Fridays, and noon to 5:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. All events at the Here Here Gallery are free and open to the public.
Media Contact: Marci Janas
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