Buster Levi Gallery is pleased to present Legacy, new work by Pat Hickman at 121 Main Street in Cold Spring, New York. The exhibition will run from September 1 through October 1, 2023. The opening for the show will be on Friday September 1, 2023 from 5-8pm.
Pat Hickman grew up on the flatlands of northeastern Colorado and thought that she had left for good after completing her college education. In 2021 Hickman participated in an artist residency in Kansas and the experience of being surrounded by the Great Plains rekindled memories of the relentless blowing wind; place and family history surfaced. Discovering a collection of old rusty tools, a body of work began to take shape. Hickman's experience reminded her of a quote by Gertrude Stein; “What good are roots if you can’t take them with you?”
Pat Hickman, Remembrance, skin membrane
Pat Hickman, Mother Overall, garment pattern paper and skin membrane
Hickman uses skin membrane, (hog casings), to create much of her work. When she brought the old tools back to her studio, she molded the skin membrane over them and then removed them to create Remembrance. For Hickman; “the membrane with rust marks reflected the soul or spirit of the place, of the hand that had used the tools on the farm.” Her installation of the ‘tools’ will be in a swirling circular shape, like a whirlwind or dust devil that blows across the prairie. All of the works in this exhibition are a reaction of Hickman’s experience with the prairie. Similar to Remembrance is the work Mother Overall. It translates an ordinary object, in this case an apron of the type that Hickman’s mother or other women of her generation would have worn into an imposing silhouette. She has added a saw blade out of skin membrane as the apron ties to symbolize the toughness of the hard scrabble life in the West.
In another work, a recent sculpture, Winnow, refers to the winnowing of chaff, the sifting of one thing from another. Hickman states; “It’s not just about the land of wheat, or rural America. The chaotic motion implied, the change of direction, the unknowing seems to be the way the wind is blowing now”. This is a deeply felt exhibition, that uses innovative materials to express feelings and ideas about the past, the present and perhaps the future.
Pat Hickman, Winnow, mixed media