571 Projects is pleased to present peace bridge, a solo exhibition of new mixed media works by accomplished artist Melora Griffis opening June 4 and on view through July 31. The artist will be present for an artist talk on July 9 at 6p.
in her own words_
Sewn blocks of fabric intermingling with paint and glitter engender a soft celebratory empowerment to the rigid, bare boned steel structure. I value and am drawn to the metaphoric implications of form and texture. Opposing forces reinvigorate and enhance perspectives as a result of their "reverse-ness." Rooted in memory, past interior and exterior subliminal voices inform present ones. A bridge connects what came before with what lies ahead, crossing over ever changing and boundary-less water-allegorical in its nature. Does the root of ignorance emanate from an inability to face the depths of grief? Until the other side is considered, fragmentation and separateness persist. The origin of the word individual is "not-divide."
I am curious about looking at things as they truly are-not as they appear to be. In mending disparate parts with hand stitching, the painting is vulnerable to puncture, imperfection, and wrinkles, exposing a fraught journey in the process of making, and a legitimate sovereign new land is recognized. In other works, tree trunk slices reveal rings of time below the bark's surface and are the ground for painted memories of a past spent on either sides of the the US and Canadian borders.
The Peace Bridge embodies a comprehensive symbol of connection from the left side of the painting to the right. In between the customs agents booths, there is a glorious view from the high point of the arc where the winds are strongest. A whole life is lived with the collective of humanity, spanned in the interval between birth and death.
- Melora Griffis, May 2021
