“Outta Here,” an exhibition featuring sculptures made from materials found in nature, held its opening reception at the Evanston Art Center Sunday. The show is paired with the painting series “A Tragedy of Religious Fanaticism,” which tells the story of persecution in Iran.
Vivian Visser’s “Outta Here” and Maryam Safajoo’s “A Tragedy of Religious Fanaticism” are both solo shows featuring different media and subject matters.
Still, the two are visually complimentary, EAC’s Director of Development and Exhibition Manager Emma Rose Gudewicz said. The shows have similar color palettes, and by showcasing them at the same time, Gudewicz said, they will draw larger crowds.
“It brings in different audiences for both their work,” Gudewicz said.
Both shows will be on display through Dec. 14.
For Visser, sculpture is the medium that feels the most meaningful and exciting. She said she always knew she wanted to be an artist, but it wasn’t until she took her first sculpture class in college that she realized the medium was “it” for her.
Visser creates sculptures out of materials found in nature, including different types of bark and wood. She considers herself a “scrounger” for materials and said her inspiration often comes from the growth patterns she sees in nature.
The artist also said environmental issues have always been of interest to her. Visser said she hopes her art will encourage viewers to appreciate nature and feel inspired by it.
“We do have a relationship with nature, and… not just acknowledging it, but valuing it will hopefully get people to put in more of an effort to save what we have,” she said.
In her work, Visser also brings psychology and nature together. “Outta Here” is about pulling oneself up and out to a psychologically safe space, Visser said. The sculptures, made from red dogwood and Manzanita, look as if they are on their tippy toes about to walk away.
Some of her work is more comforting, but with some sculptures, no one wants to stand too near, Visser added. Her work reflects the different needs that people have, she said.
“Thinking of nature as a psychologically safe space is also very positive to individuals and society as well,” Visser said. “Hopefully when people see the work, they think a little bit about it.”
Safajoo’s “A Tragedy of Religious Fanaticism” paintings tell the stories of systematic persecution of the Iranian Baha’i community since the 1979 Iranian revolution. Before she started the project, Safajoo said, she was painting landscapes.
Her husband suggested that she paint about the persecution.
“This is the story that I grew up with,” she said. “It was my daily life, hearing the news, and family members around me all were involved with this persecution.”
Safajoo interviewed numerous people as a part of the project, including family members, friends and others who reached out to share their stories for her ongoing series.
Throughout the painting process, Safajoo said she continues to consult her interviewees. She sends them images for each step, and they correct her to make sure the final paintings are accurate.
“I am in touch with the individuals until the last touch of the brush on the canvas,” she said.
For Safajoo, it is important to share people’s stories while they are alive. In some cases, interviewees have passed away a few months before their paintings were finished, she said.
Safajoo added that the persecution of the Iranian Baha’i community is not the only important persecution happening in the world now, but it is the one she feels most connected to.
Still, she said, she hopes her work will encourage people to think about persecution as a wider subject matter. She wants her audience to talk and think about justice, equality, respect and prejudice, Safajoo added.
She currently has 75 paintings in the “A Tragedy of Religious Fanaticism” collection and hopes to complete a total of 400. She also said she hopes to display them to a broader audience.
Gudewicz echoed the importance of showcasing art to a range of viewers. They said the Evanston Art Center tries to feature a variety of works in their roughly 30 exhibitions each year, and she hopes the shows will encourage people to return.
“You always want them to be interested and interested in coming back,” Gudewicz said. “You always want to kind of plant that seed so that they have a connection here and that memory kind of grows into something else.”
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