By Taylor Jones
Left foot, right foot, left foot, right; I march up the stairs of the Pacific Grove Art Center with intent to explore the exhibit titled The Quiet Eye: Walls, Windows, and Walkways, a collection of photographs by Peggy Downes Baskin. Step into the gallery and you’ll find yourself strolling through texture-filled images from around the world, traveling in the mind to Italy, Spain, France, Guatemala, Ireland, and the United States just to name a few. Baskin’s work in this exhibit is peculiar because there are no human subjects (the closest thing being a mannequin in an Italian storefront), and rather focuses on a range of textures from intricate architecture to rugged walls that look as if you can reach in and scratch the peeling paint off.
One of my favorite photos is titled “Staircase, Amber Fort,” taken in Jaipur, India. The iron, spiral staircase is two stories high, anticlimactically leading to a closed off doorway. It looks like the inside of this building has been charred by a fire, but it gives the image a wise appeal, as if the stairs have witnessed a lot through the years they have remained standing. Another photo, “Wall Detail, Duomo,” taken in Florence, Italy, displays the same spiral theme. An ivory-white beam curves around the corner of a building, with matt-pink walls on either side.
The Quiet Eye is an appropriate title for this collection. Since there are no humans in the frames, I feel a sense of stillness and serenity in each of these photos. Nothing is disturbing the subjects; they are patient enough to wait for the click Baskin’s camera.
The floorboards creak and mumble to one another as a glide across them to the next room. This room is filled with art from the Middle East, most of them depicting the war between Iraq and the United States over the past decade. I take a seat at the piano and start to play some scales. The music puts a smile on my face, but it soon turns to a grimace of concern when I look around the room and see expressions of pain and suffering on the artists’ subjects.
The piece that most dynamically shouts its message to me is Mohammed Al-Sadoun’s “Burned Door.” Al-Sadoun made a habit out of burning beautiful old doors of Baghdad in front of live audiences as a means to protest the destruction of homes during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. This work is powerful because it feels like an artifact that takes you to the destruction and chaos of a war-stricken nation.
Another strong piece of art rests on the back wall: a tall black and white painting of a young Iraqi boy holding a rifle that appears far bigger than him. The painting is based on a 1990 photograph, and depicts the life of this child from a rifle-making family. The use of black and white in this image creates a clear message: war affects all people, and children are unfortunately exposed to the violence that comes with it.
These two exhibits are drastically different in their atmospheres, the first providing a looking glass that points around the world, and the latter providing insight into the problems faced in the Middle East. As the saying goes, “art is a weapon loaded with the future,” so keep your creative mind alive, the Pacific Grove Art Center hopes to see you in their future.
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Feel free to share your thoughts as I have, music is always an open topic for discussion. I am only posting my thoughts, I am not trying to say my opinion is above anyone else's.