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"Recycled Again" at Artwell Gallery
Come on, we've all done it—driven through a neighborhood on the morning of trash day and seen the bins, barrels and bags lined up along the curb, silently waiting to be carted off and pitched into oblivion. The idea of a "throwaway society," shocking when first enunciated decades ago by a generation who picked up the torch and the picket sign against excessive waste, has withered into a cliche so pervasive as to become just another by-product of our high-tech lifestyle. And yet it still nags at you as you pass that long gray line of broken gizmos and discarded packaging just waiting there to meet its fate of ignobility. Is there anything really wrong with that bicycle? How much use did that stair-climber ever get? Couldn't somebody fix that vacuum cleaner and get it working again? What was that strange-looking thing leaning against that mailbox post? Couldn't someone use some of this stuff for something?
Well, the answer is that someone does. Right here in your own hometown there are people who recognize, enhance, and celebrate the remaining usefulness and the hidden beauty of refuse. And Artwell Gallery, 19 Water St. in Torrington will be hosting "Recycled Again," a special show to feature the works of area artists who perform magical resurrections of orphaned objects.
All those old buttons and doorknobs, pensprings and lampshades rescued from their long, downhill slide have been lovingly incorporated into works whimsical and profound, by those imaginative people who still hold on to that ideal that objects, like souls, can live again. By re-using these things, we stem the tide of waste that is consuming our resources and our resourcefulness. Yes, there are still people who look beneath the surface of what an object is, or was, in order to recognize what it could become—people with the sensitivity and skill to draw out the underlying form and breathe new life into old stuff.
One such person is Dave Tribou of Torrington. He began doing creative work with metal objects when he first learned welding as a high-school student. Following a long dormancy, his creative inclination emerged once again in the mid 1990s when he started noticing the possibilities for old mechanic's tools, farm equipment parts, and gardening implements. By using hammer forging and torch welding techniques, Dave has sculpted everything from dinosaurs and wild critters to Olympic athletes. He'll tell you "everything I look at shows me something it could be welded into," and now he has many friends who think of him immediately when they find a plow shoe or a strange wrench for a quarter at a tag sale. Over the last several years, Dave has become so prolific, he says it will be difficult to select only three pieces for exhibit in the upcoming show.
Lori Barker of Goshen can hardly remember life before she was creating with material at hand. She tells of childhood visits to Grandma's house, when she'd be sent upstairs to play while the grown-ups sat to talk. Well, Grandma's closet had lots of scraps of cloth that little Lori made into puppets, and ever since she has been refining her eye for design and her craftsmanship. Ms. Barker creates intriguing cultural shrines of captivating intensity and meticulous detail, using everything from spent printer cartridges to garment labels, and finishing her work with advanced painting techniques. She also creates hanging shadowboxes with esoteric messages by combining graphic and dimensional elements and using natural and man-made objects for visual contrast. She will be exhibiting new works created especially for this show.
Don't miss your chance to see firsthand how Lori, Dave, and several other area artists have raised recycling to an art. "Recycled Again" will open with a reception at 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 22, and it runs through March 6. Artwell is open from 1-8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and from noon-5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday; for more info call 860-482-5122, or 860-496-7020.
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