Emily Weiner: PHASES at Whitespace, 2021
Phases
Whitespace Gallery
Atlanta, Georgia
May–June 2021
In these paintings, I reconfigured symbols from the past and present, connecting visual threads that run from antiquity and the Renaissance to craft traditions—to archetypes in folklore, theater, dreams, and nature. This body of work considers symbolic imagery through a feminist lens; It opposes the idea that progress in history is a straight arrow, but is rather a winding timeline that overlaps, loops, omits, de/rematerializes, and repeats.
In making these works I was thinking: How are representational images shaped, shared, and translated? How do they travel between or outside epochs? What are the narratives that dominate our stories, and how are they reinforced?
Technically, these works—oil on linen, set in ceramic frames—rely on intuition, time, and layers of paint.