Currently featured at the Duke Chapel, Hollis Chatelain's Hope for Our World exhibit is a dream-like portrayal of current social injustices in our world today. Showcasing from March 30 to April 14, these brilliantly detailed textiles each have a singular color theme and are suspended between columns, illuminated by the dim glow of the Chapel's stained glass windows.
Drawing from personal encounters while traveling across the world, Chatelain brings to the Chapel an exposure to current issues related to poverty, immigration and drought. Moreover, her work underlines the importance of recognizing these issues by depicting poignant individual struggles. Upon entering the Chapel, viewers are greeted by the faces of another culture and are whisked into a realm where "activism art" is far from just the typical violent, jarring images, but is instead an extension of Chatelain's dreams. Her inspirations are meaningful and the creation process is intricate. The final pieces are easy to gaze at and a little hard to forget.
"Many of my pieces are from my dreams of another place, such as 'Exodus.' Once I dream these pieces, I do more research to confirm my dreams. I then do the drawings, transfer them onto white fabric and paint them with thickened dyes, attach a backing and quilt it," Chatelain said. "Most pieces are painted in just one hue with hundreds of different values."
For example, "Hope for Our World," the piece that shares the exhibit's name, has 20,000 different types of thread representing 200 different shades of the same color scheme. What is most striking in these pieces is their medium and the way colors travel across the fabric, creating a warm ambiance for each particular story and evoking a "dream"-like essence.
"The reason I use textiles is that they not only give me a way to do all the things I love-photography, drawing, painting-but they are also very tactile," the artist said. "I really like that softness and how they make people want to approach the work just as we wear clothing, something we like to have next to our bodies. I think that type of appeal comes through in this type of artwork."
Housing this exhibit in the Duke Chapel further reinforces Chatelain's appeal-the recognition of today's issues, the instilling of the community's concern-an ideal which the Chapel strongly supports.
"Duke Chapel strives to direct people's minds, hearts and hands Godward. It is impossible to draw closer to God without drawing closer to those whom God loves, especially marginalized groups," said Gaston Warner, the director of university and community relations. "The individual pieces which comprise the Hope for Our World exhibit draw our minds and hearts to issues of human need and environmental sustainability, and this is a primary role of the Chapel."
Chatelain's creations function as soft weapons and echo their messages in hopes of making viewers potentially stir some change by "starting to think about these issues." The artist's work inspires viewers to reflect on real life stories that are interwoven to the global social injustices we face now. Her art simply represents people.
"I want viewers to wonder and realize, 'Wow, this is real, this is happening right now,' so that they will be moved, touched and want to get involved," Chatelain said. "People have told me that after seeing 'Precious Water,' it has motivated them to change their behaviors to conserve water."
Through her insight not only as an artist but also simply as a human being, Chatelain comments on these people's stories, from Karen who is a Filipino economic refugee to Abudulai, a Tuareg of West Africa.
"We hear so many statistics and numbers. But it doesn't become real until we know somebody who was killed, or maimed in the war, until it touches us personally," the artist said. "If you can relate to any of these faces [in the pieces], maybe you will believe these are real people. They could be your mother or your lover. They are human, and no matter their race or religion, we all share the same feelings because we are just people. Maybe these pieces will make people have a little more humanity and a little more humility."
Chatelain particularly notes the importance of engaging students, a population that she hopes will play an important role in impacting these issues in the future.
"It's the young people," she said. "We need the young people to get involved in this."
Hope for Our World is actually only a part of a larger exhibit named Imagine-Hope (visit www.imagine-hope.com), which will consist of 12 textile pieces complemented by 15 to 20 black and white photographs depicting the real-life situations across the world. The full exhibit is currently scheduled to premier in Islamabad and be presented in three other cities in Pakistan.
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