Mary Sherman: Visual Orchestrations
FPAC Assemblage Art Space at the Envoy Hotel • Boston, MA • fortpointarts.org • Through October 20, 2022
Mary Sherman, a highly skilled artist and presenter, outdoes herself with two visual and sound installations in the experimental art space sponsored by Fort Point Arts Channel and the Envoy Hotel. In the two pieces presented, Sherman collaborates with acoustic artists Florian Grond and Mathieu Corajod.
The installations are multi-sensory, and combine painting, constructions, light, and sound. In Delay, a small painting of Sherman’s is suspended within a central structure in a darkened room. When viewers pass before the spot-lit painting, a shuttered plate swings in front of it and a series of tiny blinds begin to pivot, illuminating the painting one section at a time, which slowly appears and disappears on the wall, accompanied by subtle sounds. The painting has been engineered by Grond through medical scanning, to translate the tactile strokes of the painting into sound thereby giving it “voice.”
Black Box is a smaller installation yet with big visual effects. Once the cover is removed, the small, handmade box “detects” our presence and it opens. Its content, a brilliant light, is revealed, then framed, projected, and choreographed around the room in a series of geometrics that Sherman relates to life’s barrage of daily inputs. Corajod’s composition, “Untitled for a Box,” is broadcast through the painted lid, which also doubles as a speaker. Black Box was formerly exhibited at Boston’s Ars Libri, Mario Diacono’s legendary avant-garde gallery.
Although there is clearly a strong conceptual underpinning (à la John Cage) in Sherman’s work, she is dedicated to the process of hand-fabricating many of the elements of the exhibit. The spareness and responsiveness of the installations to the viewer’s actions, intensifies the work’s emotional and psychological content.
Sherman’s question, “What if You Could Hear a Painting?” is answered by her innovative and imaginative response. Her collaborations with Grond and Corajod extend the reach of what is generally termed “art,” and incorporate the natural interplay of the senses in a constantly changing dynamic in which the viewer plays an integral role. Visual Orchestrations must be experienced in person for full effect. Don’t miss it.
—B. Amore