boatload

a plus/space installation by stacey davidson

boatload is us, it’s a mirror held to the consequences of white behaviors that we’ve inherited; norms that are violent and abusive. What do we do with our drunken uncles who’ve held the microphone for so long? How do we bring love into the boat?
Stacey Davidson brings her dolls to the Plus/Space in response to this political moment and the history that drives it.

“I am a painter who makes dolls. Also photographs. And now a little stop-motion animation. Portraiture is the root of everything my work has become. My subject is personality and the human heart.
The first dolls were made to hang in front of portraits. They opened the paintings to unseen territory: psychic pressures and histories we all carry.
They acted as foil and relief to the portraits. Their bodies didn't have to be in proportion. They could be hideous, and do all the things that a seated portrait could not. I fell under their spell. I wondered who they were. What did they want to be? As I made them, I put them in different contexts: installed on walls; placed in front of reflective panels or outside for a month on the a gallery’s deck in St. Cloud, MN. I've made them a stage and written them a play.
When I moved from Minnesota to South Carolina a big shift occurred: my work moved out of the studio and into the world. With little time to work, I began taking photos (of primarily one male doll). New contexts have been unfolding ever since.
The absurdity, humor, and poignancy elicited by his scale excite me. And I love being exposed while working.
What I have learned so far: that the dolls are actors, raw materials, and never finished; that my love for paint abides; that stop-motion is very meditative and full of possibilities; and that still, what drives my work is that moment when paint/material turns into a presence looking back at me. This mystery never fails to astonish me.”
-Stacey Davidson

About the artist:

Native midwesterner Stacey Davidson now lives in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where she has rolled up her sleeves to learn the blood-soaked history of her home in the Piedmont. She teaches painting at Winthrop University.

www.staceydavidson.info

GALLERY HOURS:

Thursday - Sunday, 1 - 6pm, or by appointment. Please email hanne@fivemyles.org, or call 718-783-4438.

DIRECTIONS:

Take 2, 3, or 4 trains to Franklin Avenue. Walk two blocks against the traffic on Franklin. Walk ¾ block to 558 St. Johns Place. FiveMyles is within easy walking distance from the Brooklyn Museum.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

FiveMyles is in part supported by the New York State Council for the Arts, Public Funds from the New York City Dept. of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Council Member Laurie Cumbo, The Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation, the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, the Perlemeter Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Joseph Robert Foundation, and the William Talbott Hillman Foundation.