Guest Spot at The Reinstitute is nestled within a residential stretch on the eastern edge of Station North, where the lego-block modern townhouses contrast with once regal turn-of-the-century rowhouses. On the 1700 block of North Calvert, beyond an immense patina’d metal door with circular cut-outs, lies a huge, fresh gallery space. The current exhibition, NEW HISTORY, curated by Ginevra Shay, features four distinct artists expressing their ideas of culture and memory in video, sculpture, collage, and photography.
When at last you find the gallery, do not expect to be spoon-fed, for the even the title and artist names requires you to seek them. Dina Kelberman and Marina Pinsky’s pieces present tangible historical and cultural clues, but leave drawing the connections to the viewer. The intimate works of Alex Ebstein and Luis Arnías create a current of nostalgia and personal reference, inviting an intuitive response. Throughout the exhibit, one must cerebrally dig, and remain open to the continuum of expression.
Linger.
Marina Pinsky’s bright, deliberate still life ink jet prints are saturated with dense layers of texture and narrative history. In one print, the background is wallpapered in antiquated black and white diagrams of milking machines and processing equipment. Over twenty colorful cans of sweetened condensed milk are neatly stacked with labels of pastoral cows, cups of coffee, and rich desserts from India, Russia, Vietnam, and Brazil, among others. Library books form pillars and platforms with titles including Women Dairy Project, This Milk Business, The Milk Question, and Condensed and Evaporated Milk Industry- Productivity Trends 1939-1950 illustrating the history of this internationally common kitchen staple. Pinsky elaborates on the significance, “Sweetened condensed milk is a very energy rich food that keeps forever – it’s the kind of thing that to me signifies prolonged scarcity. But all these countries are now very powerful developing economies. Sweetened condensed milk is a little historical trace of daily life in the machine of world trade.” Her prints give the viewer multiple visual associations to connect beyond the frame.
In Alex Ebstein’s collage, Climate Science, a blurry, hand-distressed meteorological map looms across thick creamy paper. The stormy cloud rotations scatter bits of notebook paper and magazine shreds with text describing Hurricane Beulah, which killed nearly 700 people across the Carribean, Mexico, and Texas in 1967. Bits of orange mark making contrast with two four inch squares of thick, turquoise sock soles with graphic white non-skid crosses. The swirling, intimate piece hints of memory and strife. Evidence of the artist’s hand combined with the sock squares narrates the connection between a meteorological catastrophe and the individual. In the wake of recent events, this piece feels akin to being a voyeur of a minute and arcane time capsule.
A large cube of nine stacked television monitors silently scream behind the reception desk. Dina Kelberman’s Simpsons Gifs, flash reels of images from the infamous cartoon so etched in many of our childhood memories. Where are the familiar, grating voices, the dead-pan potty humor, the smart-alec son? We see Marge seated at an empty table sobbing dramatically into her hands, Homer suspiciously peeking through horizontal slatted blinds, a harrowing housefire, a rushing river, and an ominous piece of white paper floating down in front of a backyard suburban swing-set. The saccharine colors contrast with the conveyed anxiety in an unnerving visual experience.
A grilled ceramic hot dog lies on white marshmallow-esque forms, mounted on a found piece of building material. Shingle hangs on the wall, emanating baking urban summers, tar beaches, and stories abound. With an almost crest-like shape to the asphalt, the intention to commemorate is clear. Smirk-worthy sculptures dot the gallery courtesy of Luis Arnías. A peeled back lid of a large, fabricated metal sardine can reveals a bunch of fingers inside. What’s the story? Arnías’playful work welcomes the viewer to imagine their own narrative. A single forearm extends from the wall, dipping a finger in a glass of milk that sits on a podium. The title, A lo Poncio Pilatos, is a Spanish saying which “means that you wash your hands out of the responsibility of the damage done. This piece is based on a personal memory: Guilt, Tease and Origin are the words that echo to me,” Arnías explains. The title provides deeper emotion to an already humorously satisfying piece.
NEW HISTORY, while initially disparate in media and theme, integrates a compelling exploration of both ephemeral and enduring, personal and cultural, memory.
NEW HISTORY is currently on display through December 7.
Guest Spot at The Reinstitute is located at 1715 North Calvert St. Gallery hours are Saturdays 1-5pm, Wednesdays 5-7pm, or by appointment.
Author: Jill Gordon is an urban explorer, fiber artist, and writer who is both enamored and bewildered by the grit and vitality found in her fair city. She is a member of Mother Made Baltimore,
www.mothermadebaltimore.org, and can be contacted at
[email protected].
*All photos by Carl Gunhouse
