Thu 8/11 @ 5:30-8PM
Visitors to 78th Street Studios’ Third Fridays who’ve ventured to the top floor will be familiar with the work of sculptor Charmaine Spencer, who has a studio there. Her usually large-scale work involves manipulating a wide variety of materials — wood, stones, metal, fabric, rope, ceramics, paper, clay, found materials — into forms that feel natural and organic. Earlier this year, the Sculpture Center presented her show From: Seed To: Root, which comprised a group of “spirit vessels” inspired by African “ancestor vessels,” embodying the cycle of life and the elements.
Some of her work is now going on view at the Cleveland Botanical Garden, which seems appropriate given how it seems to emanate from the natural world. New Growth, she says, is “a metaphor about nurturing wisdom gained through growth and experience, it’s about our connection to our ancestors and to nature.”
The pieces feature locs (dreadlocks) made with synthetic hair and adorned with shell, seed, metal, wood and ceramic beads, “theoretically growing on, then eventually growing into nature, symbolized with driftwood. Connecting both driftwood and hair is cotton thread, conceptually passing on heritage, its traditions and the knowledge that accumulates.”
There’s a reception for the show Thursday August 11 @ 5-8pm that’s free and open to the public. The exhibit runs through September 25.
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