Middlesex Community College in Middletown has a nifty little gallery, Pegasus, inside its library. From now until March 2, students who are overwhelmed by their studies, or anyone really, can go into the gallery, bang their heads against the artworks and work out their frustrations.
Melanie Carr, the Essex artist who created the exhibit “Disbelief,” says she came up with the idea of her “disbelief pillows” after the 2016 presidential election.
“Every single day, it’s tragic. I watch the news and I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I want to smash my face into the wall,” Carr says. “This is a direct response to the chaos of our time, a response of disbelief. It’s just a rejection, a rejection of content. Rejection and resistance can go hand-in-hand.”
Carr created a rainbow-colored row of squarish 10x10x10-inch canvas pillow sculptures on stretched canvas and mounted them at head height on the wall. She called the pieces’ structure “the cube, messed-with.”
On the opposite side of the gallery are other pillows, half-cyllindrical and in a palette of white gradually shading into black. The rainbow palette can be seen on the upper edges of the memory-foam cylinders.
The exhibit also includes work in neon and mirrors incorporating the theme of disbelief.
Usually artwork is not meant to be touched. Carr is rejecting that, too. “People need pillows to de-stress. Drape your body in disbelief,” she said. “There are so many things to be disbelieving about, your school, your family, your profession. People find themselves struggling, wanting to take a minute to rest or meditate or do yoga. This isn’t that, but you can close your eyes and press your face and just breathe.”
She hopes that by the end of the exhibit, the pillows are not the same color they began. “I want them to be covered with DNA and skin and makeup,” she said.
The color scheme is Carr’s attempt to incorporate the iconic visual symbolism of the LGBT rights movement. “That’s my shout-out, adopting the colors of inclusivity,” she said.
DISBELIEF is in the Pegasus Gallery in the library at Middlesex Community College, 100 Training Hill Road, in Middletown, until March 2. mxcc.edu/art-exhibits/pegasus-gallery/
