Mary Jo Bang Until Was
Sept. 10 - Nov. 6, 2010
Please join us for the Opening Reception on Friday Sept. 10, 6pm-9pm.
Regular gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10:30am-5:00pm.
Sept. 10 - Nov. 6, 2010
Please join us for the Opening Reception on Friday Sept. 10, 6pm-9pm.
Regular gallery hours: Tuesday-Saturday 10:30am-5:00pm.
“Was” is the past and “is” is the present. Grammar itself acts like a clock. And what is grammar but a continual rearrangement of the letters of an alphabet? The mixed media collages in Until Was combine text—the labeled parts of the brain, snippets from a Disney book from the 40’s, and even the raw alphabet in the form of stencil letters and magnets—with perennial characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Alice, all of whom gesture back to the “was” of childhood and forward to the “is” of this moment. And filling in the blank spaces between found text and borrowed characters, is the hand of the artist. Using gouache, ink, and graphite, I’ve tried to create a strange forest that stands for interiority, that place where time doesn’t exit, where yesterday is today. Where there is no “was,” at least not until the clock stops for good. Then the curtain comes down.
-Mary Jo Bang
Mary Jo Bang is a poet, collagist and photographer. She was born in St. Louis and educated at Northwestern University (B.A. and M.A. in Sociology), the Polytechnic of Central London (B.A. in Photography) and Columbia University (M.F.A. in Poetry). She is the author of six books of poems, the most recent of which is an abecedarius titled The Bride of E (Graywolf Press). Her book Elegy was awarded the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a 2008 New York Times notable book. She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Award and a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She is a professor of English at Washington University and is currently at work on a translation of Dante’s Inferno which will be published by Graywolf Press in 2012.
-Mary Jo Bang
Mary Jo Bang is a poet, collagist and photographer. She was born in St. Louis and educated at Northwestern University (B.A. and M.A. in Sociology), the Polytechnic of Central London (B.A. in Photography) and Columbia University (M.F.A. in Poetry). She is the author of six books of poems, the most recent of which is an abecedarius titled The Bride of E (Graywolf Press). Her book Elegy was awarded the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award and was named a 2008 New York Times notable book. She has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Award and a Hodder Fellowship from Princeton University. She is a professor of English at Washington University and is currently at work on a translation of Dante’s Inferno which will be published by Graywolf Press in 2012.
PSTL Gallery
3842 Washington Blvd.
Saint Louis, MO 63108
314-531-4304
email: paceframing@yahoo.com
3842 Washington Blvd.
Saint Louis, MO 63108
314-531-4304
email: paceframing@yahoo.com
