Contemporary Ideas and Traditional Art Merge in New Exhibition Opening at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum at Saginaw Valley State University presents a new exhibition, “Tradition Interrupted” opening to the public on Saturday, February 19, 2022.
“Tradition Interrupted,” organized by Bedford Gallery at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, CA, explores how artists weave contemporary ideas with traditional art and craft to create thought-provoking hybrid images and objects that have caught the world’s attention. The twelve artists in this show and their traditions hail from every corner of the globe: Faig Ahmed (Azerbaijan), Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnam), Serge Attukwei Clottey (Ghana), Jaydan Moore (Virginia), Camille Eskell (New York), Ronna Neuenschwander (Oregon), Mounir Fatmi (France & Morocco), Ramekon O’Arwisters (California), Ana Gómez (Mexico), Anila Quayyum Agha (Pakistan), Shirin Hosseinvand (Iran), Jason Seife (Florida), Suzanne Husky (France & California), and Steven Young Lee (Montana). From rugs and mosaic to metalwork and ceramics, they are merging age-old art and craft customs with innovative techniques that interrupt tradition while still collaborating with the past.
“The artists featured in “Tradition Interrupted” show how they use memories and past experiences, especially family and cultural traditions, to create works of art that speak of them in a personal way,” states Andrea Ondish, Curator of Education. “These artists not only are influenced by arts and crafts of their cultural past but merge it with innovative techniques of today to create a whole new visual culture. This becomes a new art history — it is powerful and enlightening." The artists have shared the trepidation they felt when they conceptualized and created their art, but in the process of unraveling tradition, these artists are embracing it and bringing it forward. Ancestral memories and political history—at risk of being forgotten in our fast-paced, digital world—take center stage here. It’s harder to lose sight of something that is staring right at you.
Pakistani-American artist Anila Quayyum Agha integrates elaborate Islamic patterns with textile processes such as embroidery and silk-screen printing to create architectural light installations. Her large-scale sculptures mimic Moorish mosques, spaces women are often prohibited from entering, yet the materials she uses often reference a practice of art making historically dominated by women. Through this irony, Agha works through both the beauty and suffering tied to cultural traditions.
Artist Mounir Fatmi uses discarded tech and media objects such as typewriters and VHS tapes as materials in his work to interrogate religion, collective memory and the dichotomy of East versus West. His installation “Maximum Sensation” is comprised of fourteen skateboards, each covered with a fragment of a Muslim prayer rug. This mashup of Western popular culture and Eastern religion implores viewers to rethink potential commonalities between the two, as well as emphasizes how globalization makes this cross-pollination possible.
The artists of “Tradition Interrupted” attempt to reconsider the universal, ageless truths as well as the comfortable and uncomfortable histories of their heritage. By doing so, they unearth transmissions of the past as a means to explore the future. The final task is left to the viewer: to consider aspects of the past, embrace current and future traditions, and reflect on what these shifts and changes mean to all of us moving forward.
“Tradition Interrupted” will be on view at the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum from February 19 through June 18, 2022. An online version of the exhibition will also be available.
Exhibition Programming includes:
April 9, 1 – 4 pm, Create & Take a photograph weaving like artist Dinh Q. Lê.
May 7, 1 – 4 pm, Create & Take a paper mosaic collage like artist Shirin Hosseninvand
June 4, 1 – 4 pm, Create & Take a weaving and mixed media sculpture like artist Ramekon O’Arwisters.
This exhibit is made possible with grant support from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.
The Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum is located on the campus of Saginaw Valley State University, 7400 Bay Road, Saginaw, MI. Museum hours are Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. For more information, call (989) 964-7125 or visit the Museum’s website at www.marshallfredericks.org.
