Liz Shepherd: Ungathered

At Boston Sculptors Gallery

By: Sculptors - Sep 12, 2021

 

Boston Sculptors Gallery
486 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118

Liz Shepherd: Ungathered
September 29 – October 31, 2021

Artists’ Reception  
Saturday, October 16, 4 – 6pm
with Artists’ Talks at 5pm

First Friday Reception
October 1, 5 – 8:30pm

Gallery Hours
Wednesday – Sunday, 11am – 5pm

Ungathered is a remembrance of Thanksgiving 2020, a day that people in the United States were denied life-long traditions of togetherness with family and friends due to the Covid 19 pandemic. To be denied gathering in celebration or commemoration, to worship, observe or rejoice, is to be deprived of an essential part of what makes us human. It was a pandemic not only of disease, but also one of loneliness and isolation.

This installation re-envisions the Thanksgiving table, as Shepherd experienced it in November 2020, as a place in disarray with many elements missing or in a state of confusion. The table is missing altogether but implied by suspended silkscreen place settings and papier mâché dishes. Floating two-dimensional steel frame chairs and images of chairs silkscreened on sheer fabric suggest the absence of dinner guests.  Paper objects are covered with images of other significant events of 2020: BLM protests and people looking out from computer screens on Zoom calls, further memorializing the chaos and disruption of the time.

The exhibition also features an installation composed of prints of life-sized furniture silkscreened on plywood and fabric which project off the walls. The furniture suggests concepts of family relationships, while the jumbled arrangement of the pieces reflects the claustrophobia and chaos that many experienced during the Covid lockdown and quarantine.