Sunday, July 7, 2013

"All Stars" by Teresa J. Parker debuts at Museo Tecleno MUTE






Greetings to all my inked up comrades.

Pardon my brief online absence as I have been feverishly at work preparing for my first ever museum exhibition. The making of new work is never as arduous as its shipping and anticipated safe arrival to parts far flung. I am pleased to report that four new series of prints and drawings will debut July 12th at the Museo Tecleno MUTE, a suburb of San Salvador, in Santa Tecla. The series for this exhibition are: 1) the ‘Baby Bird Suite’, prints conceived in part from Francisco de Goya's Caprichos prints, about illegal adoptions in Central America, 2) ‘Battered Madonnas’, which debuted in Guatemala in 2012, is about making iconic madonnas out of domestic violence victims, 3) the ‘All Stars’ is a new print series about the growing occurrence of filicide, and 4) ‘Domestic Bliss’ are new drawings tying together the theme of Battered madonnas. Many thanks to my art comrade and friend John Sevigny for including me in this joint exhibition of our works. Sevigny will be showing his now well-known "NOMADS" project, on the subject of migration from Central America through Mexico.

While I am loathe to go into much detail about my own work, I am posting this new project here for your review. (Warning* The subject of this series may be difficult for some readers.)

The ‘All Stars’ project came about as an extension of my long-standing theme relating to women and children. My earlier series, the Battered Madonnas, previously shown in Guatemala and Mexico, discusses in visual form the physical and spiritual scars of domestic violence - a topic not much discussed. My current project “All Stars” also crosses a bridge not often discussed, except in hushed tones and to make one shudder. Filicide is a growing phenomenon, and the alarming number of occurrences in the United States alone is staggering and heart-breaking. It’s a subject I don’t pretend to understand, nor condone, but as a mother and an artist, I feel I must make a statement. The exhibition contains twelve portraits of women charged and convicted of filicide, although I am only displaying ten here.

The nature of madonnas(young mothers) and matriarchs is to nurture and care for their children and their extended families. It is a natural and sacred responsibility that has been in place since the dawn of humankind. Yet, as present global events and situations take their emotional, physical and spiritual toll upon men and women, something essentially human is breaking down. The nature of familial units separate, grow distant and sometimes break apart. No one can conceive how a mother could take the life of her child, but it does happen, and the reasons are varied. This series is a structural look at the faces of these women and caregivers. There is no one thing that speaks to their individual circumstances, rather I chose in these prints to de-personify these subjects, to look at them as objects, yet elements of their personalities came through. I will let you view them without further comment, but it is hoped that you will share your impressions with your colleagues, family and friends.

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