BRATTLEBORO — The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center will unveil a new outdoor sculpture on Friday, May 5, during Brattleboro's monthly Gallery Walk celebration, 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Created specifically for the Center by Vermont artist Mary Admasian, who will be on hand for the unveiling, “Weighted Tears” consists of five teardrop-shaped objects suspended from the eaves of the museum.
Each object is made of aluminum rods, wire, and barbed wire, and is stabilized by a spherical weight. The smallest object has a light that will be kept illuminated 24 hours a day as a symbol of hope during difficult times. The sculpture will remain on view through Oct. 8.
“Weighted Tears” is part of a larger series of work by Admasian entitled Boundaries, Balance, and Confinement: Navigating the Elements of Nature and Society, selections from which will be exhibited in BMAC's East Gallery June 23 to Oct. 8.
Exploiting the constraining property of barbed wire as a unifying metaphor in each piece, Admasian repurposes other materials like fencing, willow switches, logs, butterflies, rooster feathers, and other found objects collected from flea markets and the rural Vermont landscape to create sculptures and assemblages that address “how societal and psychological restraints both contain and free us,” according to a news release.
Admasian's work explores how raw forms can embody the human challenges surrounding gender, social norms, and the tension between our daily and inner lives.
As she states, “I have always wanted to create a body of work with barbed wire, a forbidding object that can trigger instinctual and personal associations in everyone. By transforming common materials into unusual configurations, I want my work to create a narrative that provokes insight, thought, and social action in the viewer."
“Encompassing found objects and elements of the Vermont vernacular, Mary Admasian's work is elegant, contemporary, and provocative, all at the same time,” said BMAC Chief Curator Mara Williams.
Admasian has exhibited throughout the U.S. Her work is in the collections of colleges, institutions, and prominent art collectors. She has received two fellowships to the Vermont Studio Center in Johnson. She has also created site-specific work and installations in collaboration with other artists, filmmakers, musicians, and writers.
A native of Detroit, Admasian has lived in Vermont most of her adult life. She earned a BFA from Colby-Sawyer College with honors in painting and has worked as an artist, curator, marketing consultant, and creative director for the visual and performing arts.
“Weighted Tears” is supported in part by a grant from the Arts Endowment Fund of the Vermont Community Foundation.