 |
Courtesy of the Fowler
Museum
Inner-city schoolchildren created artwork of their own in response
to the “Ceramic Trees of Life” exhibit at the Fowler
Museum. Their works are now also on display.
|
fowler branches out
'Trees of Life' sprouts grassroots artwork
BY cynthia lee
UCLA Today Staff
A current exhibition at the Fowler Museum, “Ceramic Trees of Life:
Popular Art from Mexico,” has developed strong roots in several
Los Angeles communities and borne fruit in the form of neighborhood art
projects.
The exhibition showcases the artistry of three potting villages in Mexico,
where generations have produced elaborately decorated candelabra-like
ceramic trees. Their branches are embellished with minutely sculpted flowers,
tiny figures and a plethora of lifelike and imaginary creatures. Many
of the trees tell a personal or Biblical story, memorialize the dead,
celebrate a wedding or honor a tradition.
Realizing that the rich imagery of the trees could fire the imagination,
the Fowler, led by Director of Education Betsy D. Quick, decided to partner
with three L.A. community art organizations to involve neighborhoods and
schoolchildren in, first, seeing “Ceramic Trees of Life,”
and then using the tree metaphor to create artwork that tells their personal
stories.
The result is “Family Roots/Community Branches,” a museum
outreach program involving the Ryman Program for Young Artists, Inner-City
Arts and ARTScorpsLA. The project, an overwhelming success, produced enough
artwork by community members, guided by artists, a poet and museum educators,
to fill an adjacent gallery as well as the Fowler’s lush courtyard.
Weeks of workshops, classes and even “tree fiestas” in a
neighborhood art park culminated at the end of July when 150 community
members — many transported in two buses chartered by the museum
— saw their artwork displayed.
“For them to come to this beautiful place, this museum, to see
their work displayed — it was such a big deal to them,” said
ARTScorpsLA artist Katrina Alexy, who worked with adults and children
from an area west of downtown Los Angeles of predominantly immigrant families
from Mexico and Central and South America. “A lot of these families
don’t even have cars so the children don’t often get out of
their neighborhood.”
Standing in the courtyard are two 10-foot-high “trees” they
fashioned from wooden boards and decorated with painted wood cutouts of
flowers, bottlecaps, lids and other found objects. Anchored to sawhorses,
the trees are hung with giant, hollowed-out, egg-shaped globes made of
papier-maché, molded with help from a local piñata maker.
Each globe holds a miniature tableau made of found and clay objects, reflecting
the lives of its makers.
“We had a good feeling from the start that this was going to take
off,” Quick said. “From the beginning, we saw that this would
provide lots of options and opportunities for the community to work with
the material. It’s exciting to see how a museum exhibition can be
the centerpiece for learning and self-discovery, for gaining an awareness
of new ideas and places.”
There’s one more way the “Trees of Life” will be linked
to community concerns. In November, in conjunction with a UCLA conference
on the maquiladora murders, a Day of the Dead memorial altar to the victims
of these serial killings will be unveiled at the museum. Created by MujerArtes,
a women’s arts cooperative in San Antonio, Texas, and artist Veronica
Castillo Hernandez, the altar will have as its centerpiece a “Tree
of Death,” with roots that portray a factory, a trunk that resembles
a smokestack and branches that allude to the limbs of its 320-plus known
victims.
The “Ceramic Trees of Life” exhibition will be on
display at the Fowler Museum until Jan. 4, 2004. “Family Roots/Community
Branches” will be on view until Oct. 19.
|
