Exhibitions

KELLY HIDER: DEAR ANDREA

Hamilton Center for the Arts (Lincoln Memorial University) / 703 Brooklyn St., Cumberland Gap, TN October 1, 2018 - November 2, 2018

Kelly Hider

Kelly Hider brings new work that is influenced both in form and composition by Byzantine and Proto-Renaissance iconographic imagery; these contemporary iterations use accessible materials and familiar subjects. The glitter, flocking, and rhinestones are modern craft-store-versions of punched gold-leaf; photography and photo-editing software used as a modern substitution for oil paint. Not unlike common historical depictions of biblical stories such as the Ascension, the Annunciation, and the Transfiguration, there are elements of the supernatural and the surreal. Her work employs a visual language of decoration and cancellation to support reoccurring themes of death and resurrection.

Manipulating an archive of slides taken in the 1950’s and 60’s, she is playing upon the viewer’s own nostalgia associated with vintage images; remnants of forgotten domestic experience. The sparkling embellishments suggest human care, and by altering these found images, they are given new life and purpose. They evoke emotions ranging from melancholic to celebratory, leading viewers to contemplate their own personal family histories.