emily brookover
Posted on 19. Jan, 2011 by Carrie in muse
words > MATTHEW CLAGG
As long as there have been humans, the creation and treasuring of things has always been a part of what defines identity and what connects them to their environment and community. Through elegantly simple drawings Emily Brookover illustrates her relationship to objects and the role the gathering and collecting of things plays in life. In many of her drawings we see hands tied with string and pulled into dynamic gestures that imply emotion, but don’t give away the whole story. In other pieces we see hands, pillows, chairs, and small animals, all holding an untold pull to the central character in the work. Though a certain sense of narrative arises out of a group of Brookover’s works, each drawing tells only a part of the story. Tying each image to the next is a drawn string tied tightly to the object and leading off the page. ”The string suggests tension, vulnerability and a sense of precariousness. The string plays a large role in the work and has a great deal of power. At the same time, however, the string is delicate and could easily be broken.” This delicate connection illustrates the physically precarious but emotionally gripping connection between people and their things.
The stories told by Brookover’s paintings and drawings do not and are not intended to open themselves to the viewer, but to open the idea of what objects hold for the beholder. Without history, no object or space has significance; in creating connections between events and things, ideas and memories are placed within objects. In the drawing ” … slipping back into that world and letting it overtake her, flushing out the everything about last year” a bowtie hanging from a string tied near the top pulls all the gravity of the graphite image down to a small drip of green at the bottom edge of the bow, coming from and going to where is left a question. This object obviously holds a heavy story, but the details are absent. The story suggested and what is carefully left out opens the work to a wider idea about possession and ownership. Though these delicate images appear simple, like the objects they discuss, they are full of stories and questions.
One Response to “emily brookover”
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Seth Macy
20. Jan, 2011
Love Emily! She’s a great teacher and a great artist. As a student of hers, I never had the chance to comment on her work. Now I can!!!
Anticipation and vulnerability, subtly drawn. Elegant and moody…all done very presentably and not with angst or bitter disillusion. Uplifting and dark at the same time. Frontal with minimal elements and direct formally…and what a nutcase
)))