Natural Disaster and Waxworks
This past Friday, Abi Ogle’s show “Natural Disaster” and an original musical composition by William A. Peacock titled Waxworks, invited viewers to consider, “How does one make something beautiful in a world that so often feels really ugly?”
Abi Ogle has been fascinated by the idea of natural disasters as they relate to human life and relationships. “Humans,” she says, “are living, breathing, talking ‘natural disasters.’ In both reside beauty and fear, ruin and new life— held constantly in tension.” A large piece in the middle of Speck Gallery, titled “Fault,” encourages us to question what we consider a fault to be, and why. Usually unseen, sometimes for many years, faults almost always end up making themselves known, typically with disastrous consequences. The piece functions as a sort of hallway made out of cheesecloth that viewers can walk through. In a horizontal line through the middle runs a snag- a fault line that interrupts the integrity of the fabric. The piece got me thinking about people who live on or near a fault line. They must operate every day, consciously or unconsciously, knowing that it could rupture at any time. But they have to hold that information at arm’s length or else they wouldn’t be able to function. The same is true of relationships- to acknowledge the faults within them can be crippling, so they are allowed to exist quietly beneath the surface.
Ogle has a knack for creating work that toes the line between discomfort and familiarity and making the known feel strange. In her series “Southern Hospitality,” she has taken heirlooms from her own family, a carving fork and a spoon, and covered them in dandelion seeds. The soft, fuzzy seeds give the everyday objects a dreamy and ethereal look, despite their ordinary uses. This parallels the way items passed down for generations collect memories and importance as they become older, even if they don’t physically change. You can’t help but try to picture what it would be like to try and use the spoon and carving fork in this state- seeds would get in the food, you couldn’t hold them properly, it would make a mess. These relics of the past would be completely impractical now. As Ogle puts it, “They remind us that some of the oldest traditions, practices, and perceptions that we cling to actually render us ineffective and irrelevant.”
During the show, music flowed in from the courtyard. William A. Peacock’s Waxworks was composed specifically with Ogle’s show in mind. It was performed by the new music ensemble Forward Motion, comprised of emerging Indianapolis musicians. A flute, clarinet, keyboard, percussion, violin, and cello make this piece come to life as it builds from seemingly random, birdlike sounds into a traditional melody. Like Ogle’s work, it is at times startling and leads you in unexpected directions. Ogle and Peacock were able to find common ground in their different mediums of art by exploring what makes us human. Peacock describes how he was inspired by “Natural Disaster”: “Abi has an inspiring way of creating relationships between art and viewer, inviting them into a relationship with things that are often uncomfortable, but through those relationships, leave the viewer better, more human.” For this collaboration, Ogle and Peacock discussed what themes they like to incorporate into their work, and how they both find themselves coming back to ideas that fascinate them. This shared emphasis made composing a complementary piece come naturally to Peacock. He found that these same concepts carried over into another of his compositions also performed Friday, called Whom Lot's Wife Turned From, which explores the duality of holiness. “It's interesting how artists invest so much time in our particular mediums and yet we're all working in the realm of ideas”, he says, “In her art, I found a visual connection to ideas I'm exploring with sound.”
Make an appointment to see “Natural Disaster” in person until the end of September, or view it online here.
Listen to Waxworks below!