This post is an archive of an article in the UCD Advocate from May 2007
Between the leaves
Debra Goldyn
Issue date: 5/2/07 Section: Life & Arts
If artist and UCD graduate
Rachel Hawthorn feels a little chilly these days, it may be because her life is
on display and exposed to the elements in Between the Leaves, her latest
exhibit, which is located across from St. Cajetans and on view until May 8.
Hawthorn, a 2004 alumna, is taking a break from her pursuit of an M.F.A. at
Bard College in New York to polish her technical skills with some additional
courses from UCD. Her work has expanded past the initial boundaries of
photography to encompass a variety of media. “I used to describe myself as
a photographer, but now I use just the term artist,” she says. “So
much of what I do involves sculpture, printmaking, performance, and video in
addition to photography that the labels don’t work much anymore.”
The theme underpinning her current artwork is that of collective memory. The
installation features 31 books; each is intended to represent a year in
Hawthorn’s life. “I am very interested in the way modern society
memorializes events, especially events of which we have no specific personal
recollection, and how that memorialistic approach colors our interpretation of
modern events,” Hawthorn offers. “In that way, my work…deals with my
personal memory as an extension of social history and memorials – for example,
the books in the Between The Leaves piece are selected for their various
meanings, however obvious or oblique they may be to the casual observer.”
Her work is informed by the themes of familial connection, religion and oral
history. Her great-grandfather was Jewish, while her great-grandmother was
Catholic. Her grandmother married a Baptist and they raised their children,
including Hawthorn’s mother, in the Lutheran faith. For Hawthorn, church
attendance was not required and she grew up concerned about her family’s lack
of a religious foundation. She now explores the concept of “this constant
shifting spirituality” in her art.
Regarding Between the Leaves, she describes it in detail on her Web site,
www.rachelhawthorn.com:
Situated in a grassy square in the center of campus, 31 books seem to float on
air, their pages ruffling in the wind, yellowing and deteriorating in the sun.
Each book is staked through its cover to a steel plate, lifting it above the
grass, offering up the intimate knowledge within for those who wish to
investigate. Selected for the specific meanings that sometimes remain even
unconscious to me at this moment, these books tell one side of the story, one
possible path to where I am now. What is next? It remains to be seen, for the
final book in the installation remains blank…
View Between The Leaves from now until May 8. You can see more of
Hawthorn’s work on display with the Marina Graves + 2 exhibit at Vertigo
Artspace, 960 Santa Fe Dr., May 3 – 28. Call (303) 573-8378 or visit
www.vertigoartspace.com.