REVIVAL
In the Speck Gallery, for the month of October, Kipp Normand and Ginny Taylor Rosner reunite after 20 years for a joint exhibition. In this exhibit, Normand, an assemblage artist, and Taylor-Rosner, a photographer, explore connection and revitalization, both between them as individuals and their creative outputs. After 20 years since their last exhibition, Trespasser, they meet again to present just as striking work as the first show.
Looking at the work, there is quite a divergence between styles and processes, yet their work connects together in a conversational way through different mediums. Kipp and Ginny have both gone through loss and grieving, which can be felt in the work and just being in the gallery. Exploring their mortality and feelings of homesickness, absence is key to this show. Absence reappeared very frequently during our conversations about the show. The absence of old, abandoned buildings, the absence seen in the rooms that Rosner photographs, and the absence that can be felt in Normand’s assemblages. These are felt through colors that overlap between the works, multiple shades of faded blues, reds, and greens, all swarmed in browns and blacks. It is found in the memories that have been recreated through each artwork.
For Rosner, her work in this show has been a part of a series that she has been working on since 1989, composed of photographing abandoned buildings, brands, schools, homes, and, of course, industrial spaces. Rosner grew up in Chicago, and when she started this series, she had overwhelming experiences of home sickness, so she decided to photograph these buildings as a personification for the people and places that she dearly missed. Rosner particularly is fascinated with the interiors of spaces, finding facades to be simply put up as a front, similar to people. The interiors are “these spaces were owned and lived in by people, their lives, and the remnant’s that they leave behind, that’s what interests me, the stories that are left behind.”
Normand grew up in Detroit, exploring similar spaces; anywhere that was vacant. Kipp has gone in to collect old, abandoned objects, saving them, a physical action that connects to Ginny saving spaces digitally. Kipp uses these objects in his work to recreate stories and symbols from his life, this show specifically being his father and struggles with religion, specifically Catholicism.
Despite this, this show is about revitalization, salvation (ironically), and overcoming. As mentioned earlier, both Kipp and Ginny have gone through significant losses in their lives, which impacts their work for this show. It also impacted their creative processes, both speaking to me about how difficult it has been to make work since these moments of grieving and reflection. This show has been a revival for them and their creative processes, both being pushed into making more work and seeing things with a new focus.
When talking with Kipp, revival continued to be a theme. He talked to me about his experience of “saving” boxes and reusing boxes that he and his father had made with him, and he is using them for this show, which has been a bittersweet experience. Many of these boxes were from Kipp and Ginny’s previous show Trespasser.
This show, Revival, has brought back their connection as individuals, having not seen each other in a long time. Both working together on this show, serendipitously and emotionally, coming together in solidarity to create this show, which in a way is a revival of the magic from their previous show. More poignantly, this show is a revival of themselves, recognizing and mourning their losses and their experiences, recognizing the growth that they are making as people from these experiences and from their work while bringing life to spaces and objects that have been abandoned.
Revival can be seen anytime in the Speck Gallery through October during Gallery Hours: Monday – Friday from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. The works can also be viewed and purchased on our online gallery.