Ely Center Strides With The Times

Two online exhibitions at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art speak to the up-to-the-minute concerns of our time, and the deeper problems that have always been with us.

Earlier in the spring, the Trumbull Street gallery made a sharp pivot toward embracing the reality of quarantine and social distancing under the Covid-19 outbreak by revamping its website and embracing the fact that it could now gather art from all over the world easily. Its rolling exhibit ​“What Now?” asking artists to respond to the pandemic began in April and is growing steadily.

Perused from bottom to top (roughly in chronological order), it reads as a running commentary on current events since March. The shock of shutdown gives way to ruminations on it, and even a little humor. And the latest two pieces, by Qrcky and S. Darius Parker, reflect the impacts of the widespread protests about racial justice happening while the pandemic remains a serious threat. Qrcky’s piece focuses on the anxiety, and the ways that protecting oneself from both viruses and tear gas look about the same. S. Darius Parker’s piece, meanwhile, shows how even the danger of disease could not contain the anger and grief over George Floyd’s death, and the far too many deaths at the hands of police that preceded his.

Meanwhile, the ​“Digital Grace” section of ECOCA’s is currently hosting two more exhibitions. One is ​“I Am Here, Here I Am, and I Have Been Here….,” a solo show by New Haven-based artist and writer Shaunda Holloway that runs through June 28. The other is ​“Ordinary Life in Unusual Times,” a multiple-artist show curated by Amina Khokhar that runs through June 30.

Fans of Holloway’s work, which has graced the walls of galleries and businesses around town for years, will recognize her kinetic, textured style right away. ​“It’s a privilege to be an artist and a great responsibility,” Holloway writes in an accompanying statement. ​“The materials dictate the outcome for me. Working with tactile items like wood, bogolanfini (mudcloth), linen, and other fabrics gives a unique texture and character to my prints. As a painter wood is much more satisfying to paint on. Sometimes the grain comes through in the piece, which provides excitement. With printmaker, textiles offer tremendous possibilities — every fabric has its own story to tell. Using both acrylic and oil paints and printing ink, it is my effort to express the things many wish to say: I am here, here I am, and I have been here.”

The pieces in the exhibition were almost all made in 2017 with the exception of one that was made in 2019. That they seem currently ripped from today’s headlines could seem like a coincidence to some. A more likely explanation is that Holloway’s art reinforces the bigger message that the protestors are sending. The pandemic has laid bare the inequalities in society that have been with us for a very long time, and it has not stopped the violence and oppression that Black people face every day. Holloway’s art depicts both the dangerous fragility of Black people’s lives and the deep culture that gives the Black community strength. It speaks to our moment and to history.

“Ordinary Life in Unusual Times” reminds us of what we left when the shutdowns happened in March, for very current reasons. ​“In these trying times, one of the kindest gestures we can do for one another is to be there in spirit for our neighbors. It seems small, but its implications are ginormous,” writes Amina Khokhar in an accompanying statement. ​“Humans need social interaction and need to know other people are there. We have seen a spike of mental health concerns and issues sweep across the globe due to feelings of anxiety, loneliness, and hopelessness…. Any interactions we are given have so much more gravity to them, and being able to be close to a person is much deeper than just being a foot next to them. These pieces remind us of family, of being around others, and what those interactions mean. These representations of day-to-day ​‘normal’ life remind us of our connectedness in a time of social isolation, confusion and uncertainty.”

Juxtaposed with the other exhibits at ECOCA, ​“Ordinary Life” is also a reminder of the things we don’t miss. It is telling that the photographs and paintings in the exhibition are of people at leisure, sharing meals, a park bench, a stretch of sand on a beach, a patch of grass under a tent. It is not of people commuting alone to work, spending hours in an office, or doing hours of hard labor. The pieces remind us of the vitality of human companionship — an aspect of modern life that the rat race could easily damage in a day-to-day way. The pandemic laid bare how important those connections were that the daily grind made easy to forget.

“Ordinary Life” helps frame the enormous context of the protests; that thousands upon thousands of people around the world have decided that they don’t want to simply return to the world as it was in 2019. In moving forward, we as a society have some power to figure out what we want to bring with us, and what we want to leave behind.