“Untitled, from Women of Marwencol,’’ by Mark Hogancamp (digital image, courtesy of 1 Mile Gallery and Mr. Hogancamp), in the show “Mark Hogancamp: Women of Marwencol and Other Possible Histories,’’ at Keene State College’s (N.H.) Thorne-Sagendorph Art Gallery. The show opens Sept. 22.
The gallery says:
“The show is a photo-series and collection of photographs by Mark Hogancamp, an upstate New York artist who creates his pieces as a way of recovering from a violent assault. He customizes and arranges 1/6 scale figures in miniature settings to form a continuous narrative and tell an ongoing story of love, loss, conflict and more. His work addresses the dynamic of narrative, fantasy and fiction and aspects of war and gender.’’
Downtown Keene.
The Colony Mansion, circa 1920. It now houses the Keene Public Library.
Keene was for many years a factory town for making pails, wooden kitchen ware, chairs, sashes, shutters, doors, pottery, glass, soap, woolen textiles, shoes, saddles, mowing machines, carriages and sleighs. It also had a brickyard and foundry.
But as New England manufacturing declined in the mid 20th century, Keene transitioned to become a center for insurance, education and tourism — the last to no small degree because of its proximity to the very scenic Monadnock Region, often called “New England’s Currier & Ives Corner.’’
The city has some fine Victorian architecture from its mill town era. One is the Keene Public Library, in a Second Empire mansion built about 1869 by manufacturer Henry Colony.
