The Shadow We Create

September 10th, 2021 - January 31, 2022

The Shadow We Create raises questions about societal prescriptions, race, servitude, fear, and the consequences of not speaking through compelling works by artists Mary Bowron, Willie Cole, and Jan-Ru Wan.

The exhibition is named after Jan-Ru Wan’s stunning work The Noise We Make and The Shadow We Create, an assemblage of hundreds of rusted bells rendered silent by immersion in wax. The Beauties, Willie Cole’s full-scale prints are pulled from blackened crushed and hammered ironing boards. With titles including Bessie, Carolina, Jonny Mae and Jane, each print is named for a woman in Cole’s family. Simultaneously they reference servitude, beauty, oppression, and darkened holds of slave ships. The Shadow We Create features a haunting installation of Silent Witness, a series by Mary Bowron populated by androgynous pit-fired ceramic heads. Some are smothered in thick wax, others branded with soot from the fire of their birth, with all featureless where a mouth once was, or may still be.

The Shadow We Create addresses fear of speaking the truth amidst racial, social, political and economic unease. This exhibition asks the viewer to contemplate ways in which silence is forced and silence is broken.