Art from women’s point of view
An exhibition of work
by four female sculptors
demonstrates power
in various media.
By DANIELLA WALSH
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
These are post-feminist times indeed. To name an exhibition composed of sculptures by four women “A Woman’s Touch” would have, until rather recently, unleashed the furies.
After all, the term tends to imply a finicky attention to detail that men, ostensibly preoccupied by matters of greater importance, would ignore. But, political or gender correctness aside, this small exhibition currently at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach is a collection of sculptures with a merely whimsical title.
Curated by Eliud Alvarado, the show features works in glass, clay, wood and paper by Isabel de Obaldia, Susana Espinosa, Margarita Checa, and Peschel (née Patricia Waisburd). While all works are powerful and engaging, Peschel even contains bits of humor.
Margarita Checa weighs in with “The Doors of Perception”, a spectacular woodcarving with inlaid silver and bullhorn that seems to encompass the mythology of countless ancient and present-day religions. Checa, a Peruvian-born artist, reinvents the human form as representation of the mysteries of reincarnation, transmigration of souls or perhaps the travails of modern-day boat refugees.
Margarita Checa, “The Doors of Perception (La puertas de la percepción),”
2003, olive and mahogany wood with bullhorn and silver inlays, 81 x 43 x 24″.
Children and adults, distinguished by heads with curiously enlarged cranial bones, sadly expressionless faces and finely rendered limbs, travel in boats as forlorn family groups or in pairs or assume quiet meditative poses. Technically flawless, the figures lend themselves to a variety of spiritual, mythological, personal, and political interpretations. Words seem insufficient to describe them – it is best that they be seen.
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