Catherine Capellaro
Adriana Barrios' video projections frame the entrance.
As Madison and the world adapts to the restrictions of safer at home orders to stem the spread of COVID-19, an art exhibit at the Garver Feed Mill is designed for our new reality.
Outside Looking In: A Drive-Thru Exhibition is an evocative and artistically diverse exhibit featuring the work of 18 artists. The tone of the works, most of which peek out from Garver’s tall windows, ranges from lighthearted to sincere. And the variety of mediums is impressive. Try viewing the art at different times. What you see at night is different from broad daylight, and Garver is an architectural gem that is already worth a look.
Catherine Capellaro
A light sculpture near the entrance to Garver Feed Mill.
Driving in from Fair Oaks Avenue, you’ll encounter a spirit-lifting peacock light sculpture reminiscent of Olbrich’s GLEAM or Olin Park’s Holiday Fantasy in Lights. It was created and donated by the National Electrical Contractors Association and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 159.
The next highlight is a trio of wacky sculptures titled “Failed Mascots” by Actual Size Artworks (Gail Simpson and Aris Georgiades). The works re-combine plaster seals, a plastic pony and a Paul Bunyan head to create absurdist mashups.
Len Skar
Abstract projections created by Jeremy Wineberg (right) shine from the building's windows.
Some particularly good nighttime views are abstract video projections from Jeremy Wineberg, Thomas Ferrella and Aaron Granat. Jenie Gao’s textile fish swim across several windows. Another stunner is Adriana Barrios’ projection of ocean waves that shines out from the arched front entrance to the building. It combines videos recorded from her drone and a live feed camera off the coast of San Diego, California. Barrios says she was excited to participate after finding the call for art on Facebook. “The concept of the exhibit was motivating for me especially now with all art spaces in Madison being temporarily closed. I jumped at the opportunity to make art that I could share with the city of Madison,” Barrios says in an email. “Also, Garver is such a beautiful and unique space. When I saw the arched doorway I knew exactly what I could do with it.”
She describes her piece as “a witness to human activity, loss and beauty.”
For this viewer, the piece that packs the most emotional punch is from Helen Lee, who runs the UW-Madison Glass Lab. Her art shines out of one of the windows like a beacon, reading “Haven’t you always wondered what it would finally take to stop us in our tracks.”
The exhibit was curated by Bethany Jurewicz, Garver’s director of public programming and community outreach. Jurewicz says grant money from the Madison Arts Commission and Dane Arts helped ensure that the artists were compensated for their work. She had experience curating large, public events in unconventional spaces, including Makeshift and Municipal, but says the pandemic created new challenges. “The timeline to mount a group exhibition without using walls in three weeks is absurd, but making it happen during safer-at-home was the point, so I worried about the quality of work because I was rushing artists,” says Jurewicz. “It was also difficult to skirt the line between distraction from COVID vs. art about COVID. I didn’t want people to visit and still just be thinking about COVID. But art can explore mental and emotional struggles in a way many of us can’t, so I certainly wanted some work to approach the topic. I think a successful balance was achieved. I felt lucky to have a passion project when many aren't even working, so to receive thank you after thank you once the exhibition opened will make this a particularly memorable exhibition for me.”
According to Karin Wolf, the city’s arts administrator, it’s important right now for governments to find ways to assist artists, many of whom are hit hard by social distancing requirements as they lose the ability to show and sell art, and jobs in the service industry have been severely curtailed. She points to an article in Hyperallergic.com estimating that 95 percent of U.S. artists have lost income during the pandemic.
Wolf has in mind creating a local program styled upon the Works Progress Administration, which paid artists to create during the Great Depression. She hopes the city can help find other ways to commission works and compensate Madison artists in need. The artists who participated in Outside Looking In will be paid a small stipend when the show is finished on May 31. Dane Arts provided $600, and through a hastily assembled online meeting of the Madison Arts Commission’s BLINK grant committee, the city has provided funds up to $1,500 to match a GofundMe campaign; as of April 28, the campaign had raised close to $800.
Wolf says Outside Looking In represents hope for all of us getting through the current crisis. “It’s artists being clever and resourceful and pivoting and doing what they do,” says Wolf.
