Redwood
City – Anima
Mundi: Beastly Beauty is a collaboration in
which artists Judith
Serebrin and Belinda
Chlouber explore social awareness
of the choices we make and the effect of those choices on other
sentient creatures. The two artist investigate our society’s
disconnect between the natural world and current social conventions.
How can we find a deeper, more meaningful definition of personal
and social beauty? How can we incorporate this new definition into
our consciousness and reflect it in our actions?
Mixed media artists Judith Serebrin and Belinda
Chlouber explore these issues with both individual and
collaborative work, including small figures of clay and wool, for
a show titled, “Anima Mundi: Beastly Beauty.”
In Anima Mundi: Beastly Beauty Serebrin and Chlouber
collaborate to explore the social awareness of the effect of the
choices we make on other sentient creatures. The two artists investigate
society’s disconnect from the natural world.
In particular, the artists explore the impact of choices women make
as consumers on animals and the environment. How does the concept
of beauty shape and define these choices? What does it mean to be
beautiful? Can this question be answered with integrity, considering
the huge societal pressures to conform to expectations, the damage
caused by latent (and often patent) sexism and the influence of
other social mores?
Perhaps it is as simple as beauty is inherent and those outside
forces may serve to diminish that beauty. So, how does the idea
of beauty function in our society – as a concept, a social
norm, a source of motivation or a tool of manipulation?
How do women become vulnerable to pressures to purchase and consume
products that are both harmful to themselves and others? Women spend
untold amounts of money in the cosmetics industry in the United
States. Many companies in this industry still use animals to test
their products, even though there are many viable alternatives.
This show attempts to provide deeper insight into the meaning of
beauty for our society– by incorporating into our consciousness
the impact of our actions. True beauty need not include cruelty,
but could rather be perceived as a measure of our self-confidence
and care for our environment. Anima Mundi—a phrase often interpreted
as “Life’s Breath,” or “Soul of the World”--is
an ancient concept of the interconnectedness and importance of all
things. This very interconnectedness necessarily informs our interpretation
of the Beautiful.
The artists have created a variety of small creatures for this show,
combining ceramics and colorful felt. In addition, Chlouber and
Serebrin have included individual works exploring the same theme.
Belinda Chlouber has a long explored humanity’s
relationship to the natural world in her work. Her paintings, prints
and drawings often depict human interactions with nature, flora
and fauna. She uses disparate materials to speak in differing emotional
voices. By negotiating between narrative and abstract artistic impulses
Chlouber considers the often-ambiguous relationship between personal
and societal existence.
For the show Chlouber has prepared a series of assemblages incorporating
felt backgrounds with small ceramic creatures. These pieces have
a serene cosmic feel to them, which the artist says, “speak
to the softer gentler aspect of humanity”. She will also be
showing new prints and paintings further complementing the theme
of the show.
Judith Serebrin’s interest and work in women’s
liberation and animal welfare issues have come to the fore in this
body of work. She has pondered all kinds of relationships in her
art over the years using ceramics, prints and bookmaking.
Many new animal “Soul Books” were created for this show.
Her Soul Books are a series of ceramic figures with books fitting
inside of them. These objects represent a symbolic and tactile way
of reaching into someone’s soul without the embarrassment,
censorship or fear often accompanying such intimate exploration,
which too often keep us mammals from really knowing each other.
With these Soul Books you get to look, see, and touch what’s
inside.
Most of Serebrin’s sculptures are high-fire porcelain, stained
but unglazed. The accompanying books are mixed media on paper (ink,
watercolor, pastel, acrylic). The bindings are exposed; they are
bound with a link and kettle stitch.
The
show runs at The Main Gallery from May 31 to July
2, with a reception on Sunday, June 4 from 4 to
7 p.m. The gallery will also sponsor a “Women’s Night
with the Artists” on Wednesday, June 14 from 7:30 to 9:30
p.m., to take place at the gallery, which is located in the yellow
Victorian home at the corner of Main Street and Middlefield Road
in Redwood City. They
will be creating a safe and non-judgmental space for women to reclaim
their natural and inherent beauty and to share their experiences
related to topics in the show.
Please RSVP the artists if you are interested in attending this
special event. There will be a small charge on a sliding scale for
this evening, $3-15. For information and to RSVP please email
or
.
