BRATTLEBORO — For only nine days at the end of this month, Catherine Dianich Gallery in Brattleboro will host an international group of artists, Chelsea Collective, in an exhibition entitled “3 Cases and a Carry-on.”
Aaron Distler is a collective member who comes from Brattleboro, and he will be curating the show of all 17 members of the collective in his home town.
The exhibition opens to the public with a reception on Friday, Dec. 21, from 3 p.m. until 7 p.m. The show closes Dec. 29.
The Chelsea Collective is an association of artists who met while at the Chelsea College of Art & Design's post-graduate program in London in 2010. They formed the group in recognition of the value of creative collaboration between culturally diverse voices across a range of media.
Though many of of the artists still live and work in London, they are natives of diverse locales such as Chicago, Korea, and Portugal. The collective aims to celebrate each member's roots: the cultural, experiential and geographic origins of what each does as an artist.
Ann-Marie James, an artist in the show, says, “For me, the Chelsea Collective is a great way to continue a conversation that started between a group of artists who were initially brought together just by circumstance. We all happened to be studying in the same place at the same time. In the two years since we met, it has been really interesting to watch everyone's work develop and change, to find shared themes across so many diverse practices, and to gain a deeper understanding of each artist's perspective as we get to know more about their home town.”
Each member will curate in his or her home town, and internationally, show the work of all members in the group. The artists believe that where and how art is seen should be dictated by the opportunity to engage directly with the people and places that have played an important, formative part in their lives and work.
The Brattleboro show is only the second such exhibition mounted by the Chelsea Collective.
In July, the group of artists began the Chelsea Collective Inaugural Exhibition with a show held in Norwich, England. After the Dianich show, there will be similar exhibitions in Lisbon, San Francisco and Seoul. The collective will produce new work for each show, reflecting the influence and impact of these diverse cultures.
'An international track record'
Will Teather hosted the first show, in Great Britain, at the Anteros Arts Foundation.
“It is exciting to now see the collective begin its international tour in Brattleboro,” he said. “The idea [of forming the Chelsea Collective] was conceived by Aaron and myself in discussion with other students at Chelsea College of Art in London. The hope is to see the exhibition tour across unusual locations across the world, building an international track record for the artists involved and bringing cutting edge art to communities that lie outside urban centers. It is also a great way of staying in touch with the artists we studied with, many of whom are friends as well as colleagues.”
Sarah Pager, another member of the collective, says, “For me, this collective is a truly contemporary premise for a group of artists. The international show schedule we each pledge to host in our home towns crosses not only borders but time, so that the gradual unfolding of changes as we develop over time describes an overarching narrative as yet unseen.”
Distler says that the exhibition in Brattleboro is called “3 Cases and a Carry-on” because it “frames the work of the collective within the theme of spacial relationships, physical as well as psychological.”
However, the title also refers to a more practical reason. All members' work must be able to be condensed into Aaron Distler's three check-in and one carry-on bags in which he will be transporting the whole show on a flight from London.
“You'd be surprised how much you can get in that amount of luggage, especially considering one of them contains my own clothes,” he said.
Furthermore, each member of the collective will have two to three pieces in the Brattleboro show.
“It is not as impossible as it may at first seem,” Distler explains. “Some of the works of art come apart into pieces that need to be reassembled in Vermont. Some interactive audio pieces come on MP3 files, others on DVD. There are bigger things too, such as large sculpture works.”
Many of the works are being made specifically for this show. Distler asked members of the collective to consider the title's implication.
“I wanted them to think about cultural dialogue and how it changes by restriction of physical space,” he says. “I wanted everyone to think about the audience, about where the work is going. Of course, there was the practical challenge of getting a whole art show across the ocean by myself alone.”
A London-Brattleboro connection
Distler now makes his home in London, but he still feels close to Vermont.
“This exhibition is an opportunity for me to show the people I know and love in Brattleboro the kinds of idea I have been exploring,” he says. “Much of my current work involves carving with wood, and that is involved with the natural environment, much of which began growing up on a isolated farm on top a mountain in Readsboro. My work attempts to connect various elements of my life.”
Ten years ago, Distler moved out of the states to Europe, committed to re-dedicating himself to his art. He lived in Italy for six years, and has lived in England for three. There, he studied the old masters, and spent hours sketching in the churches of Rome. He began sculpting, which quickly became non-figurative, evolving into variations on traditional sculpture such as burning paper and carving in wood, what he calls “exploring process as a means to an end.”
Moreover, Distler has married a native Italian, and now is a European resident. Nonetheless, he still dreams that perhaps one day he'll move back to Brattleboro.
He says he's “really excited” about the show at the Dianich Gallery because he has great affection for Vermont. He is astonished by the creative vitality of Windham County that goes “deep into its hill.”
“It inspires and feeds into one's work. I struggle to bring a bit of that energy into my own,” he says.