The Reece Museum Proudly Presents
"2019 FL3TCH3R Exhibit: Socially & Politically Engaged Art"
A Group Show Including the Art of Aaron Wilder
September 30-December 13, 2019
Reception: Thursday November 7, 5:00pm-8:00pm
636 Stout Drive
Johnson City, TN 37614
The 2019 7th Annual FL3TCH3R EXHIBIT is an international juried exhibit focused on socially and politically engaged art. Socially and politically engaged art has been integral in creative expression since the beginning of visual arts. This exhibition explores the current trends and trajectory in this field and these collective creative works hopefully serve as an avenue or agent for societal transformation and exposure of social and political points of view. The goal is to recognize and advance this endeavor by providing a venue for the exhibition of socially and politically engaged art.
Fletcher Hancock Dyer, age 22, was lost too soon in a motorcycle accident in Johnson City, TN on November 5, 2009. Fletcher was a senior in the Department of Art and Design at East TN State University pursuing a concentration in Graphic Design under a Bachelor of Fine Arts program. Earlier, Fletcher used as a preface in an essay he wrote as a high school senior a quote by Gerald W. Johnson, “Every great work of art is offensive to someone, for a work of art is a protest against things as they are and proclamation of things as they ought to be.” As an artist and graphic designer, Fletcher’s passion for art was a vehicle that allowed him to mirror his passion and marry it to his concern for social and political issues through visual means.
Fletcher was always curious and aware of current events; he experimented in innovative ways to create works that investigate contemporary social issues. New, unexpected ideas and perspectives had unique ways of coming to the surface as a result of Fletcher’s creative means of rattling cages. Fletcher wrote, “I dream of making a difference in some way with my art, I might attempt to right political, social, and religious wrongs by showing the rest of society a glimpse of how I feel about serious issues in the world…Hopefully the awareness that I can help create will spark an interest in a movement that others will follow.” Fletcher’s work embodies a purposeful, deliberate perspective of his personal endeavor to employ art as social and political commentary.
THE FL3TCH3R EXHIBIT aspires to honor Fletcher’s legacy by providing a venue for artists to exhibit artworks that continue the dialogue. This year's juror, Sue Coe, selected 82 works by 62 artists from different parts of the world out of 116 artists' submissions (total 325 artworks).
Work from Aaron Wilder's collaboration with Guta Galli "Sugar & Snails" is included in the exhibition. Their collaboration started out as a photography project employing an analytical model to the daily performance of normative gender displays of appearance. The photographs depict the artists going through the motions of performing femininity and masculinity through sequential stillness. These figurative representations deconstruct gender norms and the way these norms relate to sex, race, identity and the idea of otherness. The original photographs were done in two sequences (one exploring masculine stereotypes and one exploring feminine stereotypes) where both artists went through the same actions. The photographs are displayed always in pairs matching both artists in a particular action.
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