Context

I visited a show this week that took my breath away. “This is Not: Aldwyth in Retrospect” takes up so much oxygen that I felt it in my physical being, although it started in my mind. That wall piece, full of words that museums post as you enter the gallery is important stuff. It gives you context in a swell of visual stimulation, too much to manage in just one visit.

The scale of the wall collages by Aldwyth are larger than life, the details within each giving the feeling that life is flashing in front of you. A universe of tiny people and things float on a circle, the size of a planet.

When scale is diminished (in a good way,) an alphabet of twenty-six cigar boxes stretches across the length of the room on a shelf. Perfectly positioned for peering into each , I see bones, and hair, and snakes in alphabetical order, among other alliterative objects.
The seeing goes beyond the boxes if you let it.

Along other walls are object collections, tucked in the spaces of found and repurposed miniature ‘shelves’, libraries of a silent art process below the surfaces of wood and metal.

There is an invitation to touch, the interaction a gift from the artist.

I have to admit, I feel kinship with Aldwyth. Her ingenuity speaks of resilience and her collections remind me of my own jumble of branches and bones.

The Coastal Discovery Museum on Hilton Head Island, has done an impeccable curation of work in their gallery space. Go see it!

Mint