She deconstructed herself, dismembered and submerged her body in liquid pulling away the skin, eliminating her identity; she examined each body part and finally physically and metaphorically recreated, by folding and layering thin sheets of skin-like substance, collaging translucent layers one upon the other into an androgynous representation – a portrait of something human-like. The woman responsible for this dismantling and rebirth is the multi-talented Nina Fletcher, who is presenting components from her powerful and experimental Self Portrait photography series in the group exhibition Undercurrents: Recent Work by the Blackstone Studio Artists now on view until June 26 at the Sprinkler Factory Gallery.
The Blackstone Studio, which was founded by Fletcher, is an artist cooperative printmaking studio space. Undercurrents features work by member artists including Fletcher and Lisa Barthelson, Sally Bowditch, Mary Keefe, Kathy Murray, Karen Nunley, Jackie Ross, and Lynne Welsch. These women joined forces to create a vibrant large-scale mixed-media wall assemblage of images showcasing their new printmaking work. The 60 prints all take as their primary color a blue-green-grey hue, eluding to algae and life-rich water ecosystems.
Depicting a variety of iconographic aquatic motifs and activities – such as fish, waves, and submerged human divers, in abstracted and conceptual styles – the assemblage of snapshot-like prints are placed together to convey a larger cohesive theme. Referencing physical or emotional conditions that move us – gently guiding or aggressively pulling – often masked, or unconscious, yet always present below the surface as undercurrents they are “a motive behind the superficial,” and can be “feelings stirring,” and “waters shifting deep in the sea.”
Fletcher, whose photographic collages are brave and unexpected, has been creating a dynamic body of work in a variety of media and modes of production for over two decades. Typically she works in series explaining that the fundamental process is the reforming of deconstructed materials – objects that are associated with female domestic life - giving them new purpose. The unifying voice in her work is always gender based. Self Portrait 1-12, which has the appearance of double exposure photographs, was made by manipulating Polaroid film stills, removing the top emulsion, already printed with images of Fletcher’s body, and reworking the thin delicate membranes into abstracted forms that function as metaphors exploring the conditions of translucent human skin and the aging process. In one of her older series, which can be seen on her website, she has taken old buttons and reassembled them into expressive facial portraits of five generations of women in her family. In yet another collection, she calls Assorted Balls, old clothes and shoes which she views as “shed skins,” have been reconstructed, into a “new body” in the form of giant sculptural spheres. Fletcher’s fascinating mixed-media work, sculptures, prints and conceptual amalgamations can be seen on her website.
The Sprinkler Factory Gallery on Harlow Street is one of Worcester’s most exciting and beautiful exhibition spaces. The building complex is home to an eclectic mix of tenants including working artists and small businesses. See their website to learn more about studio space rentals, exhibition programs, and arts activities.
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