[1] 
[2] 
[3]
[1] [2]
[3]
(1) "Piece for Miss Pence", mixed media, 14 x
18 x 3", 1995.
(2) "Het Achterhuis", mixed media, 14 x 16 x 12", 1995.
(3) "Remembrance of Rebe Washington", mixed media, 52 x 16 x 10",
1995.
by Judith A. Hoffberg
(Couturier Gallery, West Hollywood)
Gaza Bowen's life growing up at the end of World War II as a Southern child
who was Jewish, second generation American, and female is portrayed in eleven
evocative works of art that combine sculpture, found objects and family
photographs. Reflections is an autobiographical exhibition, a summary
of the artist's experience which has influenced what she has become.
There are game-like installations made up of playing cards, often sewn together
to make a carnival-like interactive wheel of fortune. Numbers give you your
own fortune, as in Pick a Memory, Any Memory. Family photographs
scratched on the back of mirrors reflect the light and lives of those who
affected the artist.
Three works are set in sound suitcases, symbols of travel and memory. The
remarkable Remembrance of Rebe Washington recollects the maid in
the family who probably had the greatest influence on the artist as a child,
she with bandanna and broom, a member of the family sculpted in wood, housed
in a valise. An endless mirrored box recollects the symbols of a religion
which was politely "denied" in order to continue in the Southern
environment with torahs, mezuzahs, and Jewish symbols.
A visit to Anne Frank's house generates another impact on the artist's life,
feeling kinship with the secrecy of presence, religious and personal, for
fear of retribution. Each work of art in this exhibition reflects light
through mirrors, but also opens doors of perception into the known and unknown,
the half-glimpsed, to phrases vaguely understood, the mystery and power
of the ordinary. No viewer can deny the truth of the shared experiences
of private and public worlds which shape and are shaped by our experiences.
Bowen's grounded shoe sculptures of recent years have now developed autobiographical
wings of universal understanding. Textures of mirrored surfaces, some rough,
others smooth, have become objects of memory. Her universe has expanded
to allow you to recall your own memories in the course of interacting with
hers. This demonstrates the true power of art.
