The climax of the four-week Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR) 2017 was a festive closing reception and exhibition at the Community House on August 16, where the summer’s five residents showed work that they completed in Cherry Grove.
Marta Lee, from Tennessee and Texas, showed depictions of the porch of and objects in the house where she stayed, five acrylics on the bottom inside liners of tote bags and gouaches on water color panels.
Vincent Tiley, from West Virginia and Brooklyn, displayed four contrasting Indian Yellow Studies, inviting comparison: “Pis-en-lit,” made from powdered urine bought from a doctor; “Can a bathtub be a fountain?,” from specimens collected here in the Grove; and “Window at night in Cherry Grove” and “Discovering phosphorus,” from commercial Indian yellow pigments.
Elizabeth Insogna, from Brooklyn, showed paintings she executed near the ocean, depictions of the “Divine Feminine,” some very serious and some almost humorous, as well as the small talismanic ritual figures, which she made in Brooklyn and brought here.
Storyteller Charan Singh, from New Delhi, India, and studying in London, exhibited about half of the number of Polaroid photos that he took here, of Belvedere, the Meat Rack, and the beach. Both Tiley and Singh filmed extensive interviews with Grovites of interest to them.
And Rodolfo Marron III, from Kansas City, Missouri, showed some work, incorporating bits of the plants that grow here, that he executed on boards given to him by Michael Fisher and some on boards from the home of late Grovite Jack Ebert. One of the latter works, entitled “Fruitful Offering,” includes Cherry Grove chokecherries or bird cherries, as well as a glittering ghost figure. Another work is a page from a prayer book found at Holly House, the hymn “Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring,” set to the music of the choral fourth movement of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and singed with incense sticks, in remembrance of the fire that destroyed the house, once a FIAR residence, in March 2015.
It was good to see a sampling of the work that these young artists produced, showing how they used their time here in Cherry Grove. Kudos go to the artists and to FIAR for sponsoring and bringing them here.