Oklahoma Art Guild Mission
The Oklahoma Art Guild (OAG) is a non-profit organization with the objective of creating, promoting and developing all forms of the visual arts. The members include professionals, amateurs, art enthusiasts and patrons of the visual arts.
August 2018 Demo NightDATE: Monday, August 20, 2018
TIME: 7:00-9:00 PM LOCATION: Oklahoma Contemporary 
Join us for refreshments, socializing, and a demo by artist Ginna Dowling. There will also be time at the end to share, so bring something you've been working on or information about your upcoming event. Free for OAG members; $5.00 for nonmembers.
Ginna Dowling is an installation artist, a visual storyteller, and a printmaker. The primary focus of her current work centers around a contemporary hieroglyphic language that represents the individual identities within our communities. This body of work is part of an ongoing, progressive, and interactive installation project that has been manifested in a variety of presentations, and has traveled as far as France.The unifying factor in the hieroglyphic language represented has been influenced by the very people it is about. Throughout this project, Ginna has facilitated participants of vast differences, as they work side by side, in interactive, collaborative efforts, to create symbolic representations of themselves, using the simplest of methods- tearing construction paper by hand. She then merges these identities and creative voices from around the world into visual stories within the context of "what is a community?" Ginna's installations are about community individuals who are often judged or discriminated against based on, for example, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, socioeconomic factors, religion or education; the "identity glyphs" of the individuals are not. Each installation is a peaceful examination of the strength and character of the people, their cultures, and communities, with no prejudice or intolerance. Viewers cannot tell whether the participants are poor and homeless or wealthy; young or old; persons of color or white; male or female; straight or gay; Christian or Muslim; able bodied or disabled. Yet, people of great diversity and from all walks of life are represented. They all fit, work, and play together to create a visual rendering of a cohesive community. Identities and creative voices are merged to become a unique and powerful story of individuals thriving within a diverse, dynamic, and colorful community. Considering today's volatile social issues, the meaning behind this work has become particularly poignant, because it highlights unique identities, with all their inherent differences and similarities, and brings them together into a safe and accepting universal community. The material used in this body of work embodies Ginna's idea of a contemporary hieroglyph. When she started exploring what current-day hieroglyphs would be, by whom and how they would be made, and where they would be viewed, her solution was vinyl on the walls of our community art galleries and centers. The vinyl represents the disturbingly temporary and disposable nature of our culture and history within a consumptive consumer society. It mimics the pervasive communications and images that are produced in vinyl and placed on windows, cars, billboards, products, etc.; and the hieroglyphs are the voices and stories of our communities. |
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