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This silhouette is part of an installation piece titled “Diary-Reconstructed” by Alexandra Broches. It is included in the “Bearing Witness” exhibition at Hera Gallery in Wakefield, which opens today and runs through November 12.
This silhouette is part of an installation piece titled “Diary-Reconstructed” by Alexandra Broches. It is included in the “Bearing Witness” exhibition at Hera Gallery in Wakefield, which opens today and runs through November 12.
WAKEFIELD — The pain of history is not easily forgotten. Not for those who lived it or for those who seek to understand it.
Beginning this weekend, Hera Gallery will present the Members Exhibition “Bearing Witness.” Featured artists include Alexandra Broches, who is one of two founding Hera members, Marne Snyder, and Abigail Wamboldt. The exhibition features selections from collections created by the members and highlight a number of human-centered themes.
One such theme comes from Alexandra Broches of Wakefield, who has been a member of Hera Gallery since its opening in 1974. Broches will present a collection called “diary-reconstructed,” a continuation of an examination of objects and writings from her family’s history and emigration. Broches’ family left Holland in 1939 to escape the Nazis, and her family catalogued and stored most, if not all, items and communications from that period.
Broches has shown permutations of this work before, once at Hera, at several locations around Providence, and most recently at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, sharing with the public the struggle of her family’s attempts to thrive despite Nazi control.
It was through the items she recovered that Broches finally became acquainted with both the family she knew and the family she had never met. She found this collection, about which none of her family ever spoke, when closing her father’s home after his passing. Through translated letters that were written in Dutch, objects, and photographs, Broches has attempted to reclaim the lost pieces of her past.
“The exciting part of doing this project,” Broches said, “is that through the letters, I really began to get to know these people.”
The presentation includes visual pieces, a title board, and a roughly 40-minute video created during her presentation at UMass Dartmouth, featuring her daughter Rachel and granddaughter, Pepper, talking, singing, and reading some of the letters aloud.
Broches stated that she hopes to be able to expand this project further later on by presenting some of the objects found in her father’s house, potentially capturing all she’s learned in print via a book or booklet, and eventually finding a home for the entire collection in a museum.
Abigail Wamboldt, of Providence, who creates in various media including paintings and drawings, has prepared an exhibit called “Skin Deep,” a collection of assemblages made of wood, leather, and vinyl, featuring paint and some with string.
“Skin Deep,” Wamboldt explained, is comprised of 12 pieces, and addresses the topic of people, “being so unnerved that they have a hard time interacting with each other at this point.”
“There are all these boundaries and separations happening – social media and politics – but I think they are alienating people from each other,” she said.
Wamboldt said that the individual pieces in this collection are purposefully named, like “Fractured” and “Torn.” It was her intent to reflect those themes in the conditions of her pieces.
Wamboldt said she works mostly in neutrals with occasional bright pinks, and tends to use bright pops of color sparingly.
“I think some of the pieces, the ‘Fractured’ pieces for example, are more about emptiness, but they’re also really kind of beautiful and delicate-looking,” Wamboldt said.
Wamboldt said she does not wish to influence the interpretations of viewers, though, and explained that once her work is displayed, it belongs to the public.
Hera Member Marne Snyder created a collection of assemblages as well, many in the shape of shadowboxes or window frames, depicting various themes. The assembles feature a mix of media and objects.
The Opening Reception for “Bearing Witness” will take place Saturday night from 6-8 p.m. at Hera Gallery. Artist talks will take place on November 12 from 4-6 at Hera Gallery. The exhibit will run from Saturday through November 12.
Hera Gallery hours are Wednesday through Friday, from 1-5, and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
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