Exhibited at Hermes Gallery, Halifax Nova Scoita
Written by Robert Bean, from the Exhibition Scrim(s) (2025)
A scrim is a curtain used in theatre that is both reflective and transparent. Depending on the angle of lighting, theatrical spaces and objects can appear, dissolve and disappear, intensifying illusions and images within the space of a performance. Events and performers may be revealed or suddenly veiled in ways that embellish the flow and understanding of a story. Shadow screens, reveal effects, shrinking and growing events, and silhouettes create illusions which can evoke the impression of a dream, a spectre or an unanticipated sense of awe. Time and perception are layered, perhaps unstable, and may entice the emotive commitment of a viewer. The scrim is a magical fabric.
The exhibition Scrim(s) intersects with recent art projects by Robert Bean and Angela Henderson. Showing together is a consequence of many years of conversation and collaboration. Ambitious Angle (dreams go after the mouth) (2024) and Lines of Flight (Assisi) (1979/2025) are works that share our common interests in poetic ecology, process, perception and techne (practical knowledge). They also share our concerns about living in a precarious environment and why the future must remain open to agency and hope. It is useful to recall that dreams (oneiromancy) and flying animals (ornithomancy) have a fascinating historical association with prophecy and divination. As events, they are significant to how we live and how we survive together. Within an expanded poetic ecology, these histories provide guidance to our relationship with the human and non-human environment.
“If any part of nature excites our pity, it is for ourselves we grieve, for there is eternal health and beauty. We get only transient and partial glimpses of the beauty of the world. Standing at the right angle, we are dazzled by the colors of the rainbow in colorless ice.”
Thoreau Journal Vol VIII - Dec 11
In a recent correspondence about our exhibition, Angela made these observations:
In your work from Assisi, you were making these images not expecting anything from them, so much so that they initially appeared as blank spaces on the 35mm film. Only upon zooming in and looking more closely do you see the bats, or maybe they reveal themselves to you. I feel that my drawing is similar, as I begin with a found object, not knowing what or having any expectations of it, tracing a silhouette, images emerge in the interaction between paper and graphite, and continue to emerge as I follow visual associations. I am not sure, but I feel like these images spring from subconscious thought and in doing so, it is no coincidence that they echo a more than human awareness. What connects us as humans, is a deep relationship to the more-than-human-world. These processes of unfolding or becoming feel like a sense of moving towards an unknown rather than affirming a human orientation.
In his book “The Spirit of Hope”, Byung-Chul Han observes that hope resides in a future that cannot be calculated, predicted or known. It is monstrous. Unlike optimism, hope is not static. Rather, hope is a commitment and a risk.
“[hope] … leans forward in order to listen intensely. Unlike the will, it does not rebel. Hope is the beat of a wing that carries us.”