The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world inside out. In one fell swoop, the very nature of human connection has been rewritten. Stay-at-home orders have been imposed in cities around the world. Second-nature expressions like handshakes and hugs are a strange and distant memory. Terms like social distancing, lockdown, quarantine, and droplets (currently our least favorite word in the English language) have invaded the parlance of our times and taken root. A public health disaster whose only logical remedy is an adherence to science and data has been grossly politicized. Moral quandaries usually reserved for academic halls of philosophy are playing out the world over, pinning public health outcomes against economic well-being. The most vulnerable members of our global society — including the elderly and those living in minority communities — are dying in disproportionate numbers while medical staff are literally ill-equipped to prevent it. Patients die alone, their loved ones unable to visit them. Unemployment rates climb past Depression-era highs. On every continent, people are self-isolating while time slows and blurs.

At the same time, nature is breathing a sigh of relief as global greenhouse gas emissions plummet. Wildlife has reclaimed urban spaces (an outcome most approved by eight-point buck, Jed Antler). People are rediscovering simple pastimes such as puzzles. Old friendships are rekindled through the use of technology that connects while we sit in isolation. Parents are teaching their children to grow their own food in gardens.

Against this tumultuous backdrop, dearantler brings you a new show that offers introspections in an era of uncertainty. As with every dearantler show, this one loosely borrows its title from a Hitchcock film, and we pay homage to the Master of Suspense as Psycho turns 60 years old next month.

within/without - six monoprints, six haikus (a participatory art project)

Edith’s series is dearantler’s first foray into participatory art. A few close friends and relatives were invited to contribute a haiku on the theme “introspections in an era of uncertainty.” Contributions came from different cities and places, including two of those hardest-hit by the pandemic — Italy and New York City. The series is presented as a document of this strange time as experienced by different people in different places.

Each haiku is paired with an abstract hand-printed block monoprint (a print in which no two prints are alike despite a repeated image). Each print features geometric shapes that draw from both Japanese and streamline art influences. The works are printed on rice paper — a deliberate choice to commemorate this era of food shortages and empty supermarket shelves.

Edith would like to thank Shoshana Ben-Horin, Rosanne Freed, Tatiana Gomberg, Lisa Merighi, and Jolly for their contributions. (The sixth haiku was written by the artist).

the book of love - 12 introspections painted on book covers

Jolly’s series can be seen as a collection of “self-portraits” marked by several internal monologues. Painted on the insides of old book covers salvaged from discarded Los Angeles Public Library books, these silent soliloquies offer a glimpse within — a look at the internal book cover of the mind, so to speak. The works touch on themes including love, anxiety, longing, self-doubt, and cautious optimism, while they also weave in observations of events occurring just beyond oneself. The painted backgrounds echo the sentiment conveyed in the words painted in each piece — with some of the backgrounds rather turbulent and expressionist in style, and other calm and placid.