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Heavybubble con­grat­u­lates Carol Wisker on her invi­ta­tion and inclu­sion in this show. We include her state­ment below.

This exhi­bi­tion fea­tures thirty invited artists whose multi-media works explore con­cepts of protection.

Carol Wisker’s mixed media sculp­ture, Protegere (Latin, pro­tect in front), a well defended cov­er­ing that invites and pro­tects, com­bines the seduc­tion of soft tex­tiles with rub­ber and metal hard­ware objects includ­ing cop­per bul­lets.  Mirrors and rows of minute eyes offer defense from neg­a­tive karma. Netting and clus­ters of metal gears and spring-like pro­tru­sions cre­ate pro­tec­tive bar­ri­ers, which threaten.

Exhibition
May 2 — June 12

Location
Suffolk Museum
118 Bosley Avenue
Suffolk, VA 23434
(757) 923‑2371

image : pro­te­gere, mixed media 58″ x 45″  x18”

Carol Wisker : website

Statement / Protegere

Inspiration for Protegere which in old Latin means, “cover in front”, came from the armor of ancient Japanese Samari war­riors. The sim­ple ele­gant Japanese designs were cre­ated from sec­tions and bands of mate­ri­als that were backed by fab­ric, leather or lay­ers of paper that fos­tered com­fort and ease of swift movement.

Protegere is fash­ioned from two iron­ing board pads that are sewn together at the point cre­at­ing a styl­ized pro­tec­tive hood that is stuffed and hung over a metal dress form. The soft off-white cot­ton offers beauty and com­fort yet the weave is strong enough to hold heavy pro­tec­tive gear. The iron­ing board con­nec­tion to the idea of domes­tic apron, the theme for this show, was iron­i­cally serendipitous.

The com­po­nents of each of the pro­tec­tive belts, metal mesh, cop­per bul­lets, BBʼs alu­minum, tita­nium, and steel ball bear­ings were cho­sen for their aes­thetic qual­i­ties and for their sym­bolic or lit­eral defen­sive abil­ity. The mate­ri­als are arranged repet­i­tively in straight tight mil­i­taris­tic rows evok­ing an impen­e­tra­ble qual­ity. Five cir­cu­lar mir­ror reflec­tors, arranged in a row, are deflec­tors of neg­a­tive forces, an idea bor­rowed from African and Indian folklore.

In African sculp­ture a sin­gle mir­ror is placed either on the head or in the belly of a fig­ure to deflect evil, which is also warded off in India by sewing repet­i­tive rows of mir­rors into fab­rics for cloth­ing.  This sculptureʼs con­tem­po­rary mir­rors hope­fully deflect neg­a­tive karma. Protegere also includes row of minia­ture plas­tic mov­able eyes adding to the defense of all things neg­a­tive or evil. The “eye” tal­is­man is a com­mon apotropaic charm in many cul­tures and is still used widely in Greece and Turkey. The many lay­ers of soft black net­ting ema­nat­ing in wing fash­ion from under the white padding are employed to pro­tect from and dis­cour­age inva­sive crea­tures. Above the sculptureʼs base a mound of snake-like wire springs gen­er­ate the fur­ther threat of entan­gle­ment. The base is cov­ered with a col­lage of aggres­sive and threat­en­ing machine like images that are strate­gi­cally placed pho­tographs of black and white ceramic plates.

Protegere is the first of a planned series of objects that inter­pret var­i­ous kinds of pro­tec­tion. This group­ing will be shown in a Philadelphia gallery in January of 2010.