Taking Liberties
Kim Bruce, Elizabeth Clark, Cecilia Gossen, Isabelle Hunt-Johnson, Celia Meade and Louise Williamson

The Statue of Liberty, symbol of hope and new beginnings, has inspired artists to create art based on this Pop icon. Taking Liberties reveals a sometimes serious, sometimes witty, contemporary interpretation of this well-known landmark. We are six Calgary artists deconstructing and reconstructing Lady Liberty by creating a wardrobe of personae to clothe and animate her. We have her appearing as a blueprint; poking fun at Marcel Duchamp; wearing body armour; getting dressed for a night on the town; undergoing cosmetic surgery; committing all seven deadly sins; and exhausted, asleep at her job.

Six artists are contributing to this project. The exhibition will consist of multidisciplinary two- and three-dimensional works, varying in scale from small to large, mostly wall mounted and some free standing. Installation is straight forward, with no extraordinary physical or material requirements.

This group of Calgary artists came together to create a body of multidisciplinary work that deconstructs and re-interprets the Statue of Liberty. Each artist presents a unique account of the personae and iconic meaning of Lady Liberty, ranging from humorous to serious social critique. The wide range of interpretations is echoed by use of a wide range of media including encaustics, experimental printmaking techniques, photocopy collage and embroidery.

For individual artist statements follow the links:
Kim Bruce
Elizabeth Clark
Cecilia Gossen
Isabelle Hunt-Johnson
Celia Meade
Louise Williamson

Exhibition date: May 25 - June 17, 2006

Kim Bruce

Monumental structures such as the Statue of Liberty appeal to my architectural background and sense of structure, from planning to building.
Inscribed encaustic painting reproduce the planning stage of blueprint production.
The building stage pursues the same symbolic definition and is completed by means of sculpture.
I use wax in both formats to put forth statements, sometimes politically sensitive and poignant, but always with the idea of “liberty” in mind.

Equal
(painting 15.5”x 24”, sculpture 5”d x 21”h x 8.5”w)
The painting and sculpture both represent the continuing fight for awareness regarding the crucial importance of the forests. Often overlooked in our human self-absorption.

12 Steps (painting 8.75”x 24”)
Representative of the underlying structure and foundation of a nation and a way of life, with the 12 steps indicative of the need for improvement.

Elizabeth Clark

Clothing as Metaphor
Exploring a social identity is the basis for my artwork. Vehicles used to express personal observations in my artworks have been printmaking, photography and photo image transfer, construction of three dimensional objects and, most recently, works on aluminums sheeting.

Due to my interest in people, their interaction with each other and their environment, reference to figurative imagery has always been a focus for my art. From painting I moved to a three dimensional method of exploration which has taken the form of non-functional clothing. This clothing has become a metaphor for the human body and a vehicle with which to explore the human condition and social interaction.

Like figurative art, clothing is a form of visual fiction. Clothes are connective links in a creative tradition of image making. They act as an interfacing between projected image of self and inner self. They are illusion, masquerade, and idealized visualization of the human body. Clothing communicates social status, occupation, personality, hides flaws, arouses feelings, acts as a barrier or buffer from the environment, and is a second skin. Clothing announces identity.

In keeping with some Surrealist and Dada traditions, found and non-traditional materials are used to create these artworks. Protection for Liberty Belle evolved as a result of a newspaper article which indicated a need to protect American National Monuments from terrorist attacks. This model of a bullet proof jacket when built to scale would fit the Statue of Liberty. Protection for Liberty Belle is ambiguous in nature as it makes reference to a bullet proof vest but conversely make reference to sticks of dynamite.

My artworks explore paradox and irony. Humour is an important component in the work, sometimes not immediately apparent but often a result of the transformation of the viewer’s visual perception which occurs during closer interaction with the artworks. Found images also are used in my work and are paired in Polaroid image transfers with unlikely clothing imagery creating a different and sometimes provocative context for the found images.

Aluminium Paintings
Most recently, experimentation with deconstructing images has resulted in works on aluminium roof flashing. Using car lacquer spray paints and manipulating soft and hard edges by alternating parts of cut stencils gives a graffiti-like quality to these layered pieces. This direct approach to creating the work also speaks to the difficulty of protecting and maintaining public icons in today¹s world. It seemed the appropriate method to use to produce the aluminium painting Deconstructing Liberty with Duchamp – a tongue-in-cheek reference to Duchamp’s Nude Descending the Staircase. By using image manipulation with humour I hope to provide the gallery visitor with a thought provoking view of “Lady Liberty”.

Cecilia Gossen

When I started research for my contribution to Taking Liberties, I read that most Americans carry a mental image of the statue as being blond and blue-eyed. This was my departure point for creating a triptych where Lady Liberty is presented as a redheaded Caucasian, African American and American Indian. I have her in various activities getting ready for a night on the town: shaving her armpit, wearing fishnet stockings, wearing a corset. I wonder what other people think she is wearing under that toga.

Isabelle Hunt-Johnson

My intention is to trace the emergence of the Statue of Liberty as an icon, its life cycle, its restoration and finally its progress into antiquity. The work utilizes layering and the implication of dualities to reinforce the passage of time. Evoking memories of the past, one offers an insight into the future of this ‘beloved’ sculpture. The deterioration and obsolesce of the sculpture permit its existence only in the form of computer measurements and plans or as an archaeological relic emphasizing its decay due to environmental and political effects.

A preoccupation with the preservation of youth and beauty in the female form counteracts the concept of life cycle. Many women today project dissatisfaction with their own appearances and undergo extremes to ward off the pressures of aging.

The Statue of Liberty herself has recently undergone restoration. Keeping in mind today’s emphasis on the image of women, has enough restoration been done? Does liberty represent today’s aesthetic of youth and beauty or does it need to go further? The standards of glamour must be addressed and preservative methods undertaken. Does Liberty herself need cosmetic intervention? Therefore, my images explore and represent the procedures for such necessary plastic surgery. These planned incisions for abdominoplasty, rhinoplasty, liposuction, brow lift and breast augmentation are addressed and satirized though the restorative and preservation methods needed for the maintenance of Liberty’s image.

Celia Meade

Lady Liberty, Asleep on the Brooklyn Bridge
The Statue of Liberty lives large in the world's imagination. Countless people have visited her, while millions more, like myself, have only experienced her through film. Because of its location in the harbour of New York City, immigrants viewed it upon arrival to their new country. The Statue of Liberty is therefore imbued with the promise of a new way of life, in a free country.

My contribution to this exhibition is a photocopy collage measuring 67" in height and 90.5" in width. It is mounted with push pins on nine pieces of black arches paper stacked in three rows of three. The ubiquitous photocopier is familiar to us all as a cheap and low quality method of reproducing text. It can also, however, reproduce images of actual objects. These images are most unusual and eerie in feel, quite unlike the images we associate with a photocopier. They have a kind of floating quality, appearing dreamlike, ambiguous, and partly scientific in nature. People photocopied look unconscious, adding to the dreamlike effect of this method of reproduction. It is an appropriate method for a personal vision of this great statue, one that after all I have only imagined, never seen in her coppery flesh.

Using photocopies of photographs along with photocopying physical objects, I have produced an image of Lady Liberty asleep on the Brooklyn Bridge. She has become fatigued, draped her shackles and crown on nearby skyscrapers, snuffed out her torch and lay down on the bridge. She is asleep on the job, oblivious to the transgressions against liberty that occur all around her.

Louise Williamson

A semi-fictional historical account of the symbolism of the Statue of Liberty
French Sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi was commissioned to design a sculpture with the year 1876 in mind for completion, to commemorate the centennial of the American Declaration of independence from Britian. Ten years later, on October 28th, 1886, the dedication of the Statue of Liberty took place. The reasons for this ten-year delay are many. One of the least known reasons for the delay is the very profound spiritual conversion Federic Bartholdi is reported to have experienced.

The monumental statue has many symbolic features, for example the twenty-five windows in the diadem(crown) of the earth. The toga represents the Ancient Republic of Rome.

There are seven rays of the diadem. The commonly accepted belief for the symbolism of the seven rays is that they represent the seven seas dividing and surrounding the seven landmasses of the earth. The symbolism imparted to these seven rays is the topic of speculation and study, which I present in the form of embroidered tea towels.

When Frederic Auguste Bartholdi had his spiritual awakening the vision he saw was that the seven rays represented the Seven Deadly Sins: Pride, Anger, Lust, Envy, Sloth, Greed and Gluttony.

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