Megan Craig’s studio has a wall of shelves filled with books of philosophy and a floor filled with her artistic creations. So it’s no surprise that Craig’s current art project has a philosophical underpinning.
“Armor and shields insulate a body in one place but they also articulate parts that are vulnerable. They are both protective and they highlight vulnerability,” Craig says. “Protection is always a contextualized phenomenon. I am interested in how shields work in different contexts.”
Craig, who lives in New Haven and teaches philosophy at SUNY Stony Brook, has an exhibit up at Real Art Ways in Hartford. It is a four-phase examination of the phenomenon of shields.
The first phase of “shields” comprises 45 19-by-24 black-and-white drawings, where Craig riffed imaginatively on the subject of different shields and armor.
“They are ornaments. They are decorations. They have a function. They are markers of identity and allegiance,” Craig says.
The second phase is Craig’s wall hangings, which colorfully expand on the ideas she explores in her drawings. She used fabric to hearken back to the earliest days of shields. “The fundamental idea of shielding was more related to blankets, cloth, tarps, tents rather than iron,” she says. “They’re not really about battle. They’re about life. They’re not impenetrable. They’re malleable, touchable, invitational.”
The third phase is three capes Craig created to symbolize friends’ travails. One, styled to resemble the flag of Ecuador, was created for an immigrant who fears deportation. Another, decorated with breasts, symbolizes breast cancer. A child’s cape covered with spooky images symbolizes fear of abduction.
The capes will hang in the gallery so visitors can try them on. “It gives people the opportunity to try on those fears,” Craig says. “Obviously the cape will fail. It won’t protect them.”
The last phase, a floor piece, can be manipulated by visitors. “I want a trace of the audience in the show,” she says.
Also new at Real Art Ways is “Sideways into the Shadows,’ a show of drawings and video by John Kelly on the subject of AIDS.
MEGAN CRAIG: SHIELDS is at Real Art Ways, 56 Arbor St. in Hartford, through June 10. realartways.org.
On Other Walls
New Britain Industrial Museum, 66 West Main St., will show photos from World War I taken by Paul Glaeser through May.
Five Points Annex Gallery, 17 Water St. in Torrington, presents “Naturally Inspired,” a show of work of Leslie Landau and Julieanne Palmer, until May 14. The opening reception is May 4 from 6 to 8 p.m. fivepointsgallery.org/annex.
“Tranquility of Water,” an exhibit of work by Beverly A. Schirmeier and Patricia L. Seekamp, will be at the Mary C. Daly RSM Art Gallery at Mercy by the Sea, 167 Neck Road in Madison, until June 5. An opening reception will be May 5 from 3 to 5 p.m. mercybythesea.org.
City Gallery, 994 State St., in New Haven, presents “Forecast,” a show of work by Nancy Eisenfeld that expresses the unpredictability of nature, from May 3 to 27. The opening reception is May 5 from 2 to 5 p.m. An artist talk is on May 20 at 2 p.m. city-gallery.org.
“State of Abstraction, an exhibit of work by Connecticut artists, from May 5 to June 16, at Washington Art Association, 4 Bryant Plaza in Washington Depot. The opening reception is May 5 from 4 to 6 p.m. The artists are Zachary Keeting, Elizabeth Gourlay, Ryan Paxton, Roxanne Faber Savage, Bob Knox, Hong Hong, David Livingston, Suzan Shutan, Tim Prentice, Joseph Fucigna and Howard El-Yasin. washingtonartassociation.org.
