ART REVIEWS; Two Very Different Viewpoints at the Silvermine Guild Galleries
By Benjamin Genocchio
Feb. 26, 2006
A version of this article appears in print on Feb. 26, 2006, Section CN, Page 14 of the National edition with the headline: ART REVIEWS; Two Very Different Viewpoints at the Silvermine Guild Galleries – read the online version here https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/nyregion/art-reviews-two-very-different-viewpoints-at-the-silvermine-guild.html
SERIOUSLY, how many pairs of black pants do you own?
Nina Bentley owns at least 10 pairs in different sizes, ranging from 4 to 14, one of her artworks would have us believe. Her exhibition at the Silvermine Guild Arts Center, in New Canaan, is about aging and how it forces you to take stock of your life and your wardrobe.
Ms. Bentley, who does not say how old she is herself, makes funky, witty works that often make fun of herself and her life. They are inspired by simple, everyday stories and experiences many of us can relate to: dieting, wishing we were taller or fighting unwanted facial hair.
Ever imagined what it would be like to lose 15, 20 or maybe even 25 pounds? Now you can with Ms. Bentley’s “Virtual Weight-Loss Vests,” an interactive sculpture in which viewers can try on weighted vests. A wall panel instructs viewers to “put on one of the vests for five minutes then take it off.” Losing weight, virtually, is that simple.
In addition to experiencing what it would be like to lose weight, you can also make yourself temporarily taller. Just step onto one of Ms. Bentley’s crafty “hiPods,” nonsurgical, noninvasive height enhancers .
They are little circular platforms of different heights. A wall chart, listing the height of several dozen famous and important people, accompanies them. This is in case you want to model your ideal height on a screen or political figure: Clint Eastwood is listed at 6 feet 4 inches, for instance, and Stalin at 5-6.
Ms. Bentley plays the fool for her audience (or is she really making fools of us?) in “Guidelines,” a series of 12 paintings about aging and bodily change. Many of them have amusing titles, like “These Lines Have Been Removed From the Faces of My Friends” or “As Long as I Have One Pair of Black Slacks That Still Fit, I Think I’ll Be O.K.”
Ms. Bentley, a member of the Silvermine Guild since 2001 (members must be voted in by peers), brings a freshness and creative pizazz to the galleries. But she reduces the role of the artist to a kind of court jester, making fun of herself for the amusement of others. Artists, in my ideal vision, should have loftier aims.
Something of what I am talking about here wafts through Nomi Silverman’s exhibition in the adjoining room. Ms. Silverman, a member since 2002, is yet another artist whose works are inspired by the Holocaust. But this time it is personal, for Ms. Silverman lost many relatives to the Nazis. Her charcoal and mixed-media images are, however, not those of movies like “Schindler’s List.” Rather, they are more akin to harrowing documentary photographs of concentration-camp survivors; most of the figures are nothing more than skeletons.
As for the work, the standout is “Three Bags” (2004), which dominates the feature wall as you enter the exhibition. It depicts three trash bags in a snowy setting, or at least that is what it looks like until you realize that there are people in the bags. These are disposable people, or at least that is the immediate, most obvious impression.
Deeper readings, at the risk of overstraining the imagination, may point to the mounting troop casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. Are these the bodies of American troops? Perhaps, or are they evidence of another pageant of doom?
Ms. Silverman, a comparatively young woman (she was born in New York in 1959), cannot possibly have known the horrors of concentration camps. So what is she doing? And what does she want from us? My guess is that she seeks through this work a sense of historical justice and a public accounting for her loss.
Looking at these images I was reminded of a recent news story on the Dutch government’s decision to return 200 Old Master paintings to Marei von Saher of Greenwich, an heir of Jacques Goudstikker, a wealthy Jewish art dealer and collector who fled Amsterdam ahead of the German army in 1940, leaving behind more than 1,275 paintings, many of them masterpieces. Perhaps there is some justice after all.
Nina Bentley and Nomi Silverman, Silvermine Guild Arts Center, 1037 Silvermine Road, New Canaan, through March 12. For more information: (203) 966-9700 or www.silvermineart.org.