PRESENTATION: Amy Cutler-Past, Present, Progress
The inspirations for Amy Cutler’s drawings and gouache-on-paper works encompass anxieties about global warming, Persian dynastic stories, a favored pair of shoes, and deceased family members. An idea can come from just about anywhere, arising most often when the artist is simply sketching. “I always draw first, and then the detail develops on its own,” she says.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Ruby City Archive
For over two decades, Amy Cutler has created beguiling images that only hint at unknown and open-ended stories, inviting endless interpretations. Reflecting influences as wide-ranging as global textiles, Persian miniatures and nineteenth-century photography and engaging with subjects as broad as animals of all kinds, failed utopia and preindustrial devices, Cutler’s works are otherworldly. Yet, they serve as visual metaphors for very real societal conditions or personal experiences. As mysterious as her images can be, hiding in plain sight are representations of particular traits and concepts identified by the artist. “Past, Present, Progress” is Amy Cutler’s first solo presentation in Texas and serves as a snapshot overview of her practice. Three new paintings as well as earlier examples, along with prints, drawings and an elaborate interactive installation will intrigue and stimulate with their detailed, enigmatic composition. At the center of the exhibition is Cutler’s interactive, multi-media installation “Fossa” (2015), a recent gift from the artist. Cutler is known for her finely detailed paintings, drawings and prints of women engaged in labor intensive and often repetitive tasks that take place in both domestic and enigmatic open spaces in nature. Fossa creates the experience of walking into one of her two-dimensional works. Also included in the exhibition is Cutler’s large drawing of the same name, acquired by Ruby City earlier this year, along with a selection of loaned works from two other series. The exhibition focuses on three recurring motifs—hair, heads and horses—to explore how they are used for different effect and purpose. Typical for Cutler, these motifs may have multiple associations, but each suggests a distinct condition. Long braids of hair signal the passage of time and a connection to the past, while heads, detached or opened to reveal an inner mental landscape, imply a present state of being. Horses, given their association with transportation, allude to transition and are emblematic of progress or movement forward. Cutler created “Fossa” for SITE Santa Fe in 2015. It was made in collaboration with musician Emily Wells and the hair stylist Adriana Papaleo. Visitors enter a room that resembles an old-fashioned parlor with patterned wallpaper, from and into which emanates a “hive” constructed from yards of braided synthetic human hair, bundles of textiles, antique wooden spools and other materials. Ambient sound, composed by Wells and made by extracting and layering sounds of breaths from intimate conversations among friends, surrounds the viewers who wear headphones to interact with the multitrack composition. More than 800 feet of braided human and synthetic hair descend from the ceiling and stretch into the gallery.
Photo: Amy Cutler, in collaboration with Emily Wells and Adriana Papaleo, Fossa, 2015 © Amy Cutler, Linda Pace Foundation Collection, Ruby City, San Antonio, Texas, Gift of Amy Cutler
Info: Ruby City, Ruby City Studio, Chris Park, San Antonio, TX, USA, Duration: 6/4/2023-25/2/2024, Days & Hours: Thu-Sun 10:00-18:00, www.rubycity.org/
