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OPENING
RECEPTION WITH THE ARTISTS:
Saturday, October 23, 2004 (5-8 PM)
Shown
concurrently with the 18th Annual
Day of the Dead Exhibition
The
Bath House Cultural Center presents The Texan Book of the
Dead – Mixing Media and Cultures.
This exhibition features recent mixed media works by Texan
artist Ann Huey and draws its inspiration from the Tibetan
Book of the Dead.
The
so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead (more accurately translated
as “The Great Book of Natural Liberation Through Understanding
in the Between") presents psychological insights into
the process of death and dying according to Buddhist wisdom.
It is a kind of guidebook through the process—before,
during and after. The Texan Book of the Dead, very simplistically,
considers the mostly extreme, mostly opposite Western view
of death and life, one that, even in death, seeks permanence.
In other words, clean restrooms on the road to eternal life.
For
some of the show, Ms. Huey reverently borrowed from sacred
Tibetan artworks, although it may definitely not appear
so. One of Ms. Huey’s works, “Jesus was a Buddha,”
is an attempt to imitate the soft and swirly style of Tibetan
tangka painting.
Other works, such as “The Eye of Texas Anndala,”
“Sympathy Banner” and “Obituary Flags,”
use a Tibetan art form and attach Tex-Christian symbolism.
“R.I.P., Very Still Life” is a mixed media piece
that depicts scenes from randomly-visited Texas cemeteries
and roadside memorials.
“Epitaph Lilies” and “Graven Images”
are works by Ms. Huey that simply illuminate the drama and
melodrama of the engraved word, while “The Eye of Texas”
and “Jesus” have nothing to do with death. But
all either relate to something Tibetan, something Texan,
something sacred or something dead.
Ann
Huey was born in raised in Southeast Texas. Ms. Huey, an
accomplished fine artist and illustrator, earned a Bachelor’s
degree in Painting at the University of Texas at Dallas.
Ms. Huey’s artwork has been exhibited in several galleries,
including the Armory Art Center of West Palm Beach, Creighead-Green
Gallery, the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Women and Their
Work and the Bath House Cultural Center.
To learn more about this artist, please visit her personal
website at http://www.annhuey.com.
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