By Luke Quinton
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
There is something not right about the first picture. A model in a snow-white gown is staring straight at you, into the camera. It’s fairly serene. But she has a white beard, actually more of a mane, linking forehead to chest, as if she hopped out of Narnia to warn you about the nefarious queen.
But below, out of focus, you realize that she is also wearing white boxing gloves. This is where “The Pugilist” comes in. Read more…
Margaret Meehan: Hystrionics and the Forgotten Arm
Women and Their Work
October 6 – November 10, 2011
This acts as a description of the underlying story, for me, as well; something grotesquely lovely wrought from scary variables. Her work brings to mind the recent discovery that for people with any European ancestry, there’s a likelihood of carrying some Neanderthal DNA. Meehan’s pugilist recalls the oh-so-human, not-so-human enigma of this revelation; we’re more than we thought we ever were, and consequently must think more of the Other than we generally have — the trappings of being human just got weirder, richer and more mysterious. — Sarah Fisch Glasstire.com
“Margaret Meehan offers her own reclaimed object spoof as well, though these have word play far removed from Mr. Green’s high-brow, dorm room humor. Ms. Meehan, like many of her artist colleagues here, is playing with words. By wrapping thin, branched twigs in soft pink or black leather, binding them with beads and colored thread and calling them all Libido (with various numeral assignations) she’s turned fragile little fallen branches into S and M personas, cladding something utterly benign in an armor of identities and suggestive forces. The sticks, fastened deftly to the wall to appear to grow out of it, cast shadows three layers thick around themselves, increasing their thrust, shall we say, and making them seem more beautiful, but more terrifying too. A small white fur and plaster bust beneath the branches called The Pugilist opens a toothy slit of a mouth and drops a tear from a hollow, beady eye. It’s a beaten creature.” READ MORE.
Opening April 30, 2011:6-8pm through June 4, 2011 at Centraltrak, Dallas
Including Texas artists Nick Barbee, Katrina Moorehead, Faith Gay, Sterling Allen, Charles Hancock, Lance Letscher, Tom Sale, Camp…, William S. Burroughs, Dan Phillips, Margaret Meehan, William Gaynor, Joshua Saunders, Alexandre Rosa, Taro-kun, and Leon Allesi. Curated by Heyd Fontenot (of the naked people portraits). This should be a good one. Participating in the 2011 Texas Biennial.
