Tactility: Imprints and Traces

                The Art Sanctuary of Louisville is currently the home of Tactility: Imprints and Traces, a collection curated by Deborah Cornell as part of the Mid-America Print Council conference.  While the building itself, located in Germantown, does not necessarily scream “high art,” the pieces inside do much of the talking. The exhibition features a number of large-scale prints from Cornell herself and fellow Massachusetts artist, Barbara Putnam.  This exhibition is worth a visit based on the impressive variety of print mediums alone: Tactility: Imprints and Traces featured both Cornell’s digital prints and Putnam’s woodcuts and hand-dyed printed quilts. 

            The exhibition’s theme or focus is the human imprint on nature.  Cornell’s works feature natural environments and occurrences while Putnam’s seem to focus more on natural interactions, such as that of a human with its natural surroundings.  Both seemed to be offering commentary on the interconnection between all of Earth’s systems.  Putnam’s Summer’s Slow Dance featured the beautiful interweavings of what appears to be plant life and water, showing perhaps that one could not exist without the other.   

Putnam, Summer’s Slow Dance

The process Putnam utilizes for images like Summer’s Slow Dance is both impressive and methodical.  She starts by creating very basic sketches within nature and then uses them as a guideline as she draws directly onto a large wooden block.  Next, Putnam hand-carves a much more detailed image from memory into the wooden block.  Finally, these images are printed on Misu of Japanese rice paper.  This particular piece was actually carved directly onto a piece of wood while Putnam floated in a kayak in the marshes surrounding the Great Pond in Central Maine.

            The theme of the exhibition, how humans affect nature, holds steadfast throughout all the pieces featured.  The focus on both nature and science was also prevalent and rather interesting.  This connection to science could have allowed the works to potentially reach a broader audience, had the exhibition been marketed that way.  The title of the exhibition does not immediately declare the scientific connection, however, Cornell’s use of scientific processes, including many of the Earth’s naturally occurring systems, like airflow, could pique any weather or nature buff’s interest.  Putnam’s focus on the current state of the Earth’s oceans, the human effect on them, and focus on scientific data could have made a lasting impression on the average viewer and particularly on those interested in conservation or ecology.

            While the pieces featured in this exhibition were stunning and the theme coherent and concise, the marketing of the collection truly missed the mark.  By labeling the exhibition as simply a collection of prints with a rather indirect title, the gallery missed the opportunity to reach a much wider audience and in turn, leave a greater lasting impression.  The works and information featured asked all the right questions: how are humans treating the Earth and what irreversible affects have we caused?  But they did not necessarily allow for those questions to reach enough people.

    - Kaitlyn Riley

 (Image Source: http://barbaraputnamprints.com/Gallery/Pages/Wetlands.html#1)