“Hireath 1 ‘‘ (ink, charcoal, and gouache on paper) by Vermont-based artist Susan Greer Emmerson, in her show “Unraveling,’’ at Kingston Gallery, Boston, March 3-28.
The gallery says:
“The home, as a physical and metaphorical space, seemingly exists as a constant. It is a place of return, respite, and stability even when the outside world is in chaotic flux. Emmerson (a former surgeon), however, sees the safety of home as an illusion. In her solo exhibition, paintings on paper of brightly colored houses are violently crushed together in torrential waves, evoking the physical destruction of man-made climate disasters. Other structures are in piles of debris, still retaining their original form, but gone from their foundation and neighborhoods. “
Says Emmerson, “This past year has changed the relationship many have with home. For some, it has been a site of confinement, of forced isolation and loneliness. It has been a place to grieve normalcy and human lives.” It has also been a space that has been stable one month and gone the next, either by destruction or mass evictions. Emmerson’s work evokes the Welsh word “hiraeth”, the profound homesickness and nostalgia for a home you cannot return to, or one that may never have existed.
View select high-resolution images here.
Image credit: Susan Greer Emmerson, Hireath 1 (2020) ink, charcoal, and gouache on paper, 22” x 30”, 2020, courtesy of the artist.
