DONNA DODSON’S AMAZONS AMONG US & ANDY MOERLEIN’S WOOD
STONE POEM AT BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY
Friday, May 7th, 2021 // Artscope Online, Exhibit Openings, Exhibits, Visual Arts
LEFT: Donna Dodson’s “Amazons Amongst Us”;
RIGHT: Andy Moerlein, “Snagged,” 2021, oak, cherry, wire, hooks.
by James Foritano
As we left the two solo shows just opened at
Boston Sculptors Gallery, my wife Madeleine exclaimed with an eloquent and
breathy sigh: “Whew! What imagination! How are you going to review that?”
Indeed, it is strenuous, albeit delightfully so,
to hitch your own imagination to the flights of two sculptors who share a
studio and a life in nearby Maynard, Massachusetts. The trick is to husband
your strength. Take advantage of pauses, sit, look out the window. Say to your
over-heating imagination: “It’s only wood, after all.” Then, plunge in, once
again.
Andy Moerlein’s wood is both found and transformed. Since
Moerlein was present at the gallery, as he expects to be every Saturday, he
mimed for me a trip through local woods, a metaphorical axe over his shoulder,
on the lookout for wood with the kind of sinuous life-path he favors. Not just
any wood, but wood that bulges and curves with the struggle for life, both
sensuous and muscular. No wonder I felt tired just looking on!
But look again, and you see a performance that
bids you to pause and appreciate the long length of time spent tapping our
earth and our sun for energies. This is wood in its slow grain as well its more
performative fast-dancing. And you may, as viewer, be a partner to both rhythms
— which you’d better do if you want to last through both solo shows!
Sometimes Andy applies make-up to the
performers, though they must first ask for it. Say a coating of glossy paint,
or streak of buzzing metallic sheen, which he must apply outdoors and with
caution since it vaporizes so easily.
As Moerlein is sitting in the gallery fiddling
with his computer, he hears another “ask” coming from a sculpture that isn’t
quite finished. These sculptures which seem to have co-evolved out of both
Nature’s and Man’s will sure are demanding task masters! Moerlein jumps up to
limn with one finger the change the wood is suggesting, firmly. He’s on demand,
and appears to love it.
Around a wide corner, which seems more of an
epoch than a few steps, is another solo show, Donna Dodson’s “Amazons Among
Us,” which leads the viewer to ask him/herself “What are these four statuesque
figures, sculpted in wood, asking of me?”
Majestic as well as subtly inviting, to my eyes
they seem to be asking to be seen in the round, for all they are. First, for
“Athena,” I accessed my Greco-Roman history to recall that I’d seen Athena in
marble in the lobby of the Boston Athenaeum. In marble, she seemed assured of
her place, even a bit frozen into place, as does happen to revered ancestors.
This “Athena” sculpted out of a log of black
walnut in Dodson’s Maynard studio, seemed livelier, plucked from living wood,
harboring natural cracks in her statuesque pose, that somehow suggested both
fragility and readiness. After all, as goddess of both wisdom and war, Athena,
in any form, has a large task to embrace.
Other goddesses, such as Queen Rani of Jhansi
stretch our Western imaginations to visit Asia, specifically India, where
nearly everyone recognizes Queen Rani and her deeds. As a help to our less
tutored imaginations, here, Dodson sculpts “Rani” with her child strapped to
her back in a famous escape episode: able warrior as protective mother.
I found action everywhere in Dodson’s figures,
especially in the limbs and hands where traditional mallet and chisel did more
intimate figuration than power tools are capable of; also in delicately
penciled, discretely situated tattoos. And, surprisingly, for me, the views in
back of these works are as arresting as the frontal poses of these Amazons, arresting
in their grace, as if depth as well as readiness was inherent in every Amazon.
Viewers should be ready for the fact that all of
these Amazons are interpreted as lions on two feet, fashionably shod to boot!
From acrobatic curves with magnetic skins to an
inward restlessness wrapped in majesty, between “wooden” Amazons and woodsy
poems, is there no place for a viewer to look for a pause? Maybe, yes,
afterwards.
Also, there are notable collaborations with a
suite of artists at this twin solo exhibit of Dodson and Moerlein. Look for a
miniature Bonsai tree at the top of the entrance stairs as well as captivating
videos and poems on the walls by Dodson’s “Amazons.”
(“Andy Moerlein: wood stone poem” and “Donna
Dodson: Amazons Among Us” are on view through June 6 at Boston Sculptors
Gallery, 486 Harrison Ave., Boston, Massachusetts. The gallery is open
Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; First Friday receptions will take
place on May 7 and June 4 from 5-8:30 p.m. There will also be a series of special
events and performances tied to the exhibitions; for details, visit bostonsculptors.com.)
