Arts & Culture

Inside a Concord exhibition, 'a bit of a middle finger to really institutionalized art spaces'

New Hampshire Public Radio | By Olivia Richardson

Published May 26, 2023 at 11:39 AM EDT

On a white wall the words "all my friends are in this art show" are in black while beneath "art as a vessel for change and resistance" is in gold. Next to the words are the right are large print photographs of people who have posed for a fashion shoot. — Tina Jo is a Los Angeles-based fashion photographer who participated in the Kimball Jenkins exhibition. The curator, Yasamin Safarzadeh, said she wanted Jo’s work to showcase diverse bodies.

The Kimball Jenkins campus in Concord has a history that stretches back centuries. But an event there this spring is focused on the future of New Hampshire's artistic community.

It’s called “all my friends are in This show,” and it’s curated by Kimball Jenkins Director of Programming Yasamin Safarzadeh.

“I mean, they're all my friends, and they're in the show,” Safarzadeh said. “I think it's also like a bit of a middle finger to really institutionalized art spaces, where it's really tough to come in.”

The exhibit’s name is meant to convey an openness to new, unconventional ideas. In other words, how do institutions like Kimball Jenkins make spaces for nontraditional artists and for aspiring ones to emerge?

Safarzadeh said she hopes this show can help people from all backgrounds find an authentic community through the arts.

Scroll down for scenes from the exhibition’s opening night celebration. It’s open through June 30. More details here.

On a clothing line, 4x4" blue square pieces of fabric have messages printed on them from attendees of the All My Friends are in this Show gallery. One features a features animals. Two hands reach out from the bottom right corner and hold two cloths. — Amber Nicole Cannan uses the cyanotype printing process to allow guests to create messages on pieces of cloth. Cyanotypes are an early photographic method that use a special light-sensitive dye to print or transfer subject matter from one medium onto fabric or paper. In this exhibit, Cannan invited people to design messages of what “safe space” means to them. Her past cyanotype projects have asked students to create cyanotypes on what they hoped other people knew about disabilities. Cannan sews the pieces together into pillows and foot stools, which she hopes people will interact with, in an effort to show how art can be accessible and hands on. She plans on doing the same from items made at this exhibition.

A plaster mold of a foot sits on a display. There's a small piece of bone that was surgically removed from the artist's body that is attached in the correct anatomical place where the bone was inside her foot. The artist's pinky points to the bone and serves as reference of its size. — This work, also by Amber Nicole Cannan, is titled “You're Either Disabled Or Not Yet Disabled.” It’s a plaster mold of Cannan’s actual foot, with a small piece of bone that was surgically removed from her body. She said she was unable to walk for nearly a year with that small piece missing. Cannan’s foot went through a CT scan before she had surgery to remove the small bone; she used that CT scan to make a mold that serves as both an educational vehicle and as art. “I really am playing between the lines of art and science and communicating complex topics from scientists to the general public,” Cannan said.

“Poppy,” by Shyla Hazen, is made with hand-dyed German crepe paper. It’s nestled in a corner, with strings of other paper bearing memories and messages from Hazen and others that float down from the ceiling.

An amalgamation of multiple multi-colored crocheted pieces complete a yarn dress hanging from the ceiling of an exposed ceiling wooden attic. In the background a white manakin with a light over it's head sits underneath clear plastic tarp. — Yasamin Safarzadeh, director of programming at Kimball Jenkins, curated the show, but she’s also displaying her own work. She worked on this crocheted dress sculpture that looms in the Kimball Jenkins attic. "In the dress, I was immobile after a surgery,” Safarzadeh said. “This textile work consumed me and I was able to acknowledge my misogyny and fall in love with the contribution women have gifted our country through time and all this space.”

Two janitors on the job — or are they?

Two janitors are late to their job. They are tangled up in cords as they try to vacuum the grass, which was supposed to be done before opening night. Why they needed to vacuum the grass is their call. One of the janitors, Gemma Soldati, teaches an art class at Kimball Jenkins called “A Funny Workshop." Soldati will be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the Assembly Roxy in August, with a piece called “The Poor Rich.”

Underneath a stair case 2x8x3" boxes of green, yellow, purple, orange, indigo, blue, pink and green sit above dirt and grass and are filled with dirt themselves. Two the left of the boxes is a yellow watering can and a blue box with garden trowels. Above the planter boxes reads a text that says "These thoughts are written on seed paper. Remove a thought. Tear it up and plant it. Once planted water and help it grow. The tools are here for your use. Thank you. Revival 2023." It is signed by the artist. In front of the garden boxes are two shaggy pillows and below the pillows is a shaggy purple carpet. On the right a wall has picture frames from top to bottom of various foliage and sticks. A white light is on and above the garden boxes.

A sculpture of a human form is made out of paper flowers and foliage. The sculpture rests by a staircase leading to the second floor. Surrounding the sculpture is pieces of paper with notes and text of various colors that drape from the ceiling. — This “self-portrait-ish” figurine by Shyla Hazen is made of beads, rhinestones and crepe paper flowers.

Hazen said her work incorporates elements of home and memory. Home, she said, can be many things. For some, it could be a place they own and find refuge. For others, it could be a place of rest. Hazen plays with memory by sewing together pieces of paper, on which she and others have shared their own memories, and dangling that garland from the ceiling.

On a white fold out table sits weaving tools where a visitor the gallery has started weaving separated, worn down socks together. The weaver wears a yellow shirt with a jean jacket on top and wears glasses. Behind the guest are three people looking at a wall display about the Longest Potholder project. — “The Longest Potholder” is a traveling exhibit, created in 2001 by Los Angeles-based artist and professor Laurel Paley. This is the first time the potholder has traveled out of California and has debuted in New Hampshire. Paley said that the work is a communal project; she sees herself as its “mom,” but she wants others to have a part in it. In every place it has visited, people have woven socks together to add to the piece. “Weaving for me is a metaphor for how humanity needs to work. You have oppositional forces,” Paley said during the opening night of the gallery. “If you have something that goes exactly the same, everyone agrees, everyone has the same opinions – it’s weak and it falls apart. If you have this oppositional thing, it’s the opportunity for strength, even though they maybe are in conflict.” Paley said the piece “has its own life,” and gets invited to different events, but she only shares it where she thinks people can add to the project.

Cozy Throne

Concord-based Cozy Throne plays at the opening night of the exhibition. Here, they’re playing their song “Gambit.” Amara Phelps is on vocals, with Ben Ferrari on backing vocals and guitar, Jacob Young on bass and Lindy Snell on drums.

Corrected: May 30, 2023 at 4:33 PM EDT

This story has been updated to reflect that the band Cozy Throne is now based in Concord, New Hampshire.

Inside a Concord exhibition, 'a bit of a middle finger to really institutionalized art spaces'

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