By Priya Amin, news correspondent
The Mills Gallery in Boston’s South End opened a new exhibition Jan. 13 titled “I Dread to Think…” Curated by Liz Blum through the Boston Center of the Arts (BCA), the exhibition features works that display emotions such as fear, paranoia and anxiety, along with their external influences.
Blum works not only as a curator, but also as an artist. She said the idea of focusing on fear, paranoia and anxiety had more personal roots. It soon developed into something larger as the 2016 presidential election went on. Originally the exhibition was going to be called “Feardom – Red State,” but Blum decided to change the name to the more ambiguous “I Dread to Think…” to reflect its contemporary value.
“Publically the idea of fear out there in the global realm seemed to be growing and growing,” Blum said. “I didn’t have an idea [for] this two years ago. Putting on the show now is timely. I think that in a way that fear that happened over the last few years – from political stuff, from the media that circulates fears – it’s mounted and crescendoed now with the election of Donald Trump.”
This exhibition includes works by Canadian artist Will Gill and marks his first showing in the Boston area and second time in the U.S.
“I think it is good for any artist to have their work exposed to audiences near and far but it’s not always financially feasible to show in other countries,” Gill said in an e-mail to The News. “I was lucky enough to have this opportunity through Blum who contacted me last year after having seen some of my work on the internet.”
Blum said she wanted to feature both international artists and those from the U.S., but had some trouble with this due to high shipping costs. For this reason, a sculpture by German artist Susanna Hertrich and a painting by Gill are not included in the exhibit. The final exhibition does not include any paintings.
When putting the gallery together, Blum also focused on including a balanced mix of different media. Among the media in the exhibit are an interactive video game as well as short videos. Blum said that advancing technology sparks discussions about the border between technology and art.
“I haven’t been following that debate,” said Gill, who has two videos in the exhibition. “[But] for me photography and video is a natural extension of my work. It allows me to work with a moving images and lets me combine my interests in sculpture, painting [and] live action art into one format. For me it’s just another avenue for expression.”
This is Blum’s first show in the Boston area and her first time working with BCA. Blum met Randi Hopkins, director of visual arts programs at BCA, through networking two years ago and spoke with her about the exhibit idea. Hopkins then suggested Blum submit her idea. Despite this being her first show in Boston and the exhibit being unique, Blum felt her show fit in well with the Boston art scene.
“There’s a lot going on right now because of this climate of uncertainty and there [are] a lot of things happening in the Boston arts scene that are taking up the charge of what that means,” Blum said. “I kind of hope that in some way, the show at the Mills is part of that thread to keep what’s started. I think it’s going to resonate a lot going forward for artists.”
Blum said that while creating the show, she incorporated works that were not explicitly about fear or anxiety to allow for interpretations by the audience.
“I hope that the people who are coming to the show have something to take away from it – at least to relate to something or think about something in some way [they] never kind of thought,” she said. “They put something back into the show as well because of that.”
Despite the show centering around fear and anxiety and the different forms they may take, visitor Beatrice Sclapari, junior journalism major at Boston University, found a hopeful aspect to the exhibit, especially in the works of local painter and sculptor Damien Hoar de Galvan.
“You can see that there’s sheer emotion in the pieces because they’re each a cry for help in a way, but in a hopeful way because of the colors and the innocence in how they’re presented to the audience,” Sclapari said.
Local artist Amy Archambault said she hoped viewers would gain something positive from her piece, “You Can Survive,” a sculpture of a backpack filled with outdoor gear, featured in the exhibit. She said in creating her work, she focused on how societies can adapt in reaction to their situations.
“I hope that instead of thinking about the negativity of what could come in the future that people would adapt and think about problem solving and have an optimistic attitude moving forward,” Archambault said.
“I Dread to Think…” is on display at the Mills Gallery until March 19.
Photo courtesy Mills Gallery
