Saturday, June 4, Exhibit opens at Slover Library, Norfolk
In 2014, As Lorraine Fink took down her art show at the Leon Family Gallery and loaded it into her car, she was drawn by “a silent vibrant cry from a small mountain of metal and plastic at the edge of the loading dock. Strong and stout, and somewhat intelligent looking, these identical pieces stood paralyzed before the jaws of the garbage truck, which was soon to crush them into a mangled heap and toss them to a future as landfill pollutants. I could not ignore their cries,” she says.
After loading her paintings, she loaded them, too, taking them home, where they began their journey to their new and rightful destiny: The Tribe. A series of sculptures created from the retired Jaffe Gymnasium’s metal halide light fixtures, adorned and enhanced with discarded, no-longer-needed, no-longer-usable relics of today’s age of immediate obsolescence such as architects rendered samples, drywall bead, 90-year-old penicillin bottles, remote controls, used cds, letterpress, telephone coils – among other items, to be one with the cast-off lights.
The Tribes emerged with headpieces, facial features, decorative ornaments, weavings and whimsy. They acquired body paint, feathers and unique markings. Each became its own tribe.
The Tribes have faced the world multiple times. Now, they will face all who enter Norfolk’s Slover Library.