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| Shadow on the Green |
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Theresa Ganz
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| Friday, November 21, 2008, 5:30-7:30 - Dec 23, 2008 |
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Shadow on the Green
Shadow on the Green is a meditation on internalized national grief and the link between the individual and the state. The pieces in this body of work progress from verdant to bare and suggest a seasonal progression into winter. The interwoven black ribbons offer a sense of gravity and chaos. NB: In the Victorian language of flowers nasturtium represent “Patriotism” and “Victory in Battle.” In Judaism the black ribbon is a symbol of mourning.
The titles are inspired by poems on war and loss by American writers Herman Melville and Walt Whitman who deeply identified with their country. “Gaunt the Shadow on the Green” is a line from The Portent (1859) in which Melville prophesies the impending Civil War. “For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths” is taken from a line of Whitman’s O Captain, My Captain (1865) that was dedicated to Abraham Lincoln who had been assassinated as the Civil War drew to an end. “Strange Lull” is from Whitman’s The Artilleryman’s Vision. “What like a bullet can undeceive?’ is a line from Shiloh also by Melville.
These pieces are assembled collages from hand-cut photographs. There is tension between the realism of the discrete photographic elements and the constructed nature of their context within the collage. This is underscored by the shift of scale and focus throughout the composition.
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