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So, a painter, a filmmaker, a mixed media artist, a ceramicist, a writer and a photographer get on a plane to the Azores, spend 10 days there, and three months later, they are featured in an ambitious and intriguing art exhibition in New Bedford.
“The Same Sea” is the culmination of years of meticulous planning by Lara Lourenco Harrington, the founder of Hotel Papel, an entity which was formed to facilitate cultural conversation and engagement between a cohort of New Bedford-centric artists at a residency at the Quinta da Meia Eira, a lodge in the city of Horta, on the coast of Faial.
Harrington, a one-time physical trainer who sold her share of Boutique Fitness to her former business partner, used to take her customers on hiking excursions on Faial but ultimately, she had an epiphany of sorts.
A graduate of the Massachusetts College of Art and Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in sculpture, she began to think about a career path that would not only reconnect her to the art world but also honor her Portuguese heritage. And what way to better do that than to set up an art dialogue between New Bedford and sister city Horta? And Hotel Papel was born.
Artists were soon invited to apply for the residency on Faial and six were selected. During their 10-day stay, they shared studio space, ate meals together, engaged in conversation and explored their surroundings, including the coast and farmland. And they all were to be featured in “The Same Sea” show at the Co-Creative Center, which Harrington had earlier set up with the Co-Creative Center Director Dena Haden.
But that fell apart. Not long after the exhibition was scheduled, the building in which the Co-Creative Center had spent many years was sold. And for the time being, the Center is temporarily housed in another downtown building but it is without a gallery space.
Harrington was in a panic. She called Lindsay Mis, the executive director of Massachusetts Design Art and Technology Institute (DATMA) and asked her if she knew anyone that might have gallery space available. As gracious as always, Mis offered up their meeting room. Problem solved.
After the return from Horta, “The Same Sea” artists had roughly two-and-a-half months to continue to work on their respective art before the show was installed.
For ceramicist Lynne Byers, that was an absolute necessity. As a kiln and other ceramics equipment was not available at the residency, she spent her time working on a multimedia sketchbook that she hoped would inspire her to create a pottery collection that would reflect the essence of Faial. Even if there had been a kiln, transporting fragile work back stateside would have been inherently risky.
The sketchbook was not available for perusal but dozens of ceramic pieces were displayed on a large black wall and they were the highlight of the exhibition. They were divided into three distinct series. The platters in “Azul” were all pale blue, with one topped with a lovely trio of peach-colored roses. The “Barros” collection offered a wider range of pastel colors, showing off intricate dimensional patterning. And “Quinta” featured bolder shades of orange, green, yellow and red. Although they are elegant ceramic works in their own right, their arrangement on that black wall elevated them from the arena of the utilitarian to the realm of the contemplative.
Photographer Abigail Collins hoped to immerse herself in the culture of Faial and did so by capturing up close and personal images of nature, as culture and nature on the island merge seamlessly into one another. “Beneath Orange Trees” depicts viridian leaves dappled with morning dew or droplets of rain. “Tufts” is a closeup of a curly and blond bovine, a single brown eye caught by the camera and with a length of vivid green rope wrapped about his head, like a rockstar’s bandana.
Maggie Felisberto describes herself as “a queer nail polish enthusiast with a Ph.D. in Portuguese and an MFA in creative writing.” Her time in Faial was spent working on a lesbian reimagining of the Portuguese folklore of the “Moura Encantada,” a seductive female shapeshifter, seemingly part werewolf and part succubus.
There is little to see of her work in the exhibition, save for an outline explaining her research, which included interviewing three experts on Iberian wolves that dramatically shifted her approach. Felisberto’s protagonist is wolf conservationist Alice Chaves, who is begged by a strange woman to break a curse that is directly at odds with her desire to protect the wolf roaming the woods. It makes for a somewhat emotionally torn Alice in Wonderland.
Jackie Fournier Se’Ale grew up in New Bedford surrounded by Portuguese traditions but experienced feeling distant from them, as time and distance took their toll. During her stay in Faial, she created “Threads of Home,” a series of paintings inspired by her mother, memories of her grandmother and old family photographs. The term “mixed media artist” is often purposely vague, but in Se’Ale’s case it is rather straightforward. She is first and foremost a painter but one who sometimes collages on strips of text or segments of patterns as surface elements.
Se’ale’s “The Aunties’ will be particularly familial to viewers of a certain age. A woman with a beehive hairdo and cat-eye glasses looks at another with a kerchief knotted on her head. Both are at abutting tables, stocked with platters of food. Her nostalgia-driven “Family Dinner” is comfortably chaotic with at least six relatives gathered at a long table. The collaged text is gibberish, as confusing as too many kinfolk talking over each other.
Mason Terra received a BFA in painting from Bridgewater State University and his work explores universal themes such as memory, loss and societal relationships, rendered in a somewhat comically frantic manner. “Odd Figures” features two alien beings that would not be out of place in the cabana scene in “Star Wars.” One has an elongated neck and a stiff collared shirt, and with his oversized ears, he listens to a fanciful creature with a large cyclopean eye.
Terra’s “Faial Madness” contains at least two cats, a seagull, a gaping mouth and other cartoonish pieces to an unsolvable jigsaw puzzle. Don’t overthink it. Just take it in and smile. It’s unadulterated fun.
Carley Byers (daughter of Lynne) is a young filmmaker who created “Beauty Between Surfaces,” a short (7:19) documentary about an equally youthful scrimshander and muralist Claudia Furtado, a native of Faial. The film is on continuously in the exhibition space, and speaks to Furtado’s involvement in the arts in Horta, and her deep connections to the sea and the men and women who have made their livelihood there. Several small works by Furtado are on display (on loan from Byers), including a bit of scrimshaw etched with an illustration of a whale. Fear not. No whale was harmed. It is India ink on boar tusk. By virtue of Byers’s inclusion of several works by Furtado, she effectively became a seventh exhibiting artist.
Furtado herself will have a residency in New Bedford this summer that will include an exhibition at the Portuguese Consulate.
Harrington is diligent and devoted to the cause. Hotel Papel is an exciting new entity for New Bedford artists and the community and it’s off to a terrific start. And Harrington is thinking well beyond Faial. After all, New Bedford has a few other sister cities including Cuxhaven, Germany, and Derry, Northern Ireland and Grimsby, England and Utqiagvik, Alaska and Tosashimizu, Japan and more. Bring it on.
“The Same Sea” will be on display at DATMA, 1213 Purchase St., New Bedford until Aug. 9.
Don Wilkinson has been writing art reviews, artist profiles and cultural commentary on the South Coast for over a decade. He has been published in local newspapers and regional art magazines. He is a graduate of the Swain School of Design and the CVPA at UMass Dartmouth. Email him at dwilkinson@newbedfordlight.org
