Most students who get off at the "Museum" stop on the Green Line head straight across the street to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA). Yet, just a few blocks away lies the small, but worthwhile, Trustman Art Gallery at Simmons College.
The current exhibition, "In Between: The Cultural DMZ," is actually the umbrella title of a series of exhibitions set to run during the 2008-09 season. The works on display over the course of the season will examine the idea of culture, raising issues related to ethnicity, cultural identity and memory. Dorothy Imagire and Ben Sloat, the two artists showing their work, use a variety of media to challenge established ideas.
Though the exhibition is housed in a single room, each of the individual pieces inspires considerable thought and reflection. The art sends a powerful message that surpasses mere cultural diversity. The pieces reflect each artist's desire to examine the relationship between "self" and "other" that is blurred in this cultural "demilitarized zone" where cultural norms and traditional means of identification are not relevant.
Imagire uses textiles in her "Mixed-Race Kimonos" to create pieces that reflect individuals. After interviewing people of mixed backgrounds (such as a person of Japanese-American-Iranian background), Imagire creates self-portraits in her garments. Each garment, with its blend of fabrics, speaks to each individual's conceptions of "self."
Hanging against plain white walls, each kimono beckons to be read and investigated not just as fabric but as a window into cultural understanding. When looking at the various kimonos, it is easy to wonder why each pattern of fabric or minute detail — such as coins for buttons on one piece or an assortment of silver charms sewn to the bodice of another — was chosen and what it reveals about the individual for which it was designed.
Another of Imagire's works, a pair of blankets entitled "Quapa Baby Blankets," represents both parents of mixed-race children in an effort to show how the complexities of identity are often seen in only one light. Both sides of each quilt are simultaneously shown so that the viewer can attempt to obtain a complete understanding. From the various swathes of fabric to the appliqués naming places ("Hartford" and "Helsinki") and objects ("mochi" and "princess"), one can only begin to form a sense of the reconstructed identities.
While Imagire focuses on the idea of displacement in examining the blurry transitional zone associated with multi-racial and multi-cultural individuals, Sloat takes a different approach by examining cultural iconography through the medium of photography.
The series "In Depraved May" uses the Japanese silk scroll technique to display photographic images that bring to mind both Japanese Ukiyo-E prints and the more contemporary genre of anime. Though the pieces reflect Japanese culture in design, one wonders just what cultural identity the iconography implies. The images have a theatrical quality that is reinforced by the intense use of color.
The centerpiece of Sloat's displayed work is "Seven Little Ladies," which uses vintage Avon bottles, photographed by the artist, to challenge conceptions of ethnicity. The bottles are all produced from the same mold, yet a variety of hair colors and clothing patterns supposedly indicate different ethnicities.
The Trustman Art Gallery has succeeded in creating a provocative exhibition that raises many interesting questions about how individuals struggle to create an identity that encompasses physical and non-physical components of identity. While this specific exhibition closes Oct. 3, keep an eye out for the next two exhibitions in the series, "The Human/Animal Project" and "Post-9/11."
The Gallery is open for free admission (with or without a Tufts ID) and is steps away from the MFA. The locale and price provide an easily accessible excursion that will leave visitors wishing there were more rooms in this modest gallery.
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Trustman Gallery
Through Oct. 3
Simmons College, Main Building, 4th Floor
300 The Fenway
617-521-2268
