{"id":34850,"date":"2023-02-24T01:07:59","date_gmt":"2023-02-24T08:07:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/anamnesis-the-remembering-of-things-invites-reflection-on-social-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:21:16","slug":"anamnesis-the-remembering-of-things-invites-reflection-on-social-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/anamnesis-the-remembering-of-things-invites-reflection-on-social-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Anamnesis \u2013 The Remembering of Things\u2019 invites reflection on social issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Christy
Christy Ferrato\u2019s mixed media art will be on display at Henderson Fine Arts Gallery. (Courtesy Christy Ferrato)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cAnamnesis \u2013 The Art of Remembering Things\u201d by Christy Ferrato will be the March art exhibit at Henderson Fine Arts Gallery at San Juan College.<\/p>\n

Ferrato, a poet, artist and senior director of San Juan College Advising Center, said her mixed media art transcends the limitations implicit in a single form of creative expression and challenges viewers to rethink the definitive boundaries between poetry, music, visual art and performance art.<\/p>\n

By incorporating various art forms, Ferrato asks the audience to consider how we might transcend our \u201cstained histories.\u201d She mixes various anthologies, mixed-media installation and recordings of the voices of those referenced and honored.<\/p>\n

Each exhibit installation is deeply personal, reflecting Ferrato\u2019s passion for social justice and quest to make her audience remember and reflect inwardly.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cPreservation
\u201cPreservation Nests\u201d were created by Ferrato to honor shooting victims. (Courtesy of Christy Ferrato)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cA lot of my work involves working with poetry off the page,\u201d Ferrato said. \u201cThe art piece \u2018Preservation\u2019 grew out of a poem I wrote, \u2018Lessons From Lancaster County\u2019, which was about the 2006 West Nickel Mines School\/Amish Schoolhouse shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy my work. The artwork is my passion, but it doesn\u2019t put food on the table. I love working with students \u2013 I\u2019ve had a really good run,\u201d Ferrato said about her 15 years as an adviser at San Juan College.<\/p>\n

Ferrato received a bachelor\u2019s degree in fine art in printmaking from University of Denver and an master\u2019s in poetry from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has been a featured poet twice at the Taos Poetry Festival, has received nominations for the Pushcart Prize twice, for Best New Poets of 2010 and for the Willow Award.<\/p>\n

Her work has been featured in lectures, publications, poetry performances and exhibitions such as Lake Eden Arts Festival, Taos Poetry Festival, Re(dress) Poetry series in Los Angeles, Fort Collins Museum of Contemporary Art, Durango Arts Center, Fort Lewis College Art Gallery and Vermont College of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n

She is inspired by artists including Joy Harjo, Ann Hamilton and Jenny Holzer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I started applying what I was learning about poetry to my artwork \u2026 I realized in poetry every word choice, punctuation and structure \u2013 it all takes you closer to the emotional content of the work. Everything\u2019s extremely intentional,\u201d she said about her process.<\/p>\n

Ferrato sees a certain historical omission and erasure of traumatic events, giving a voice to what has been lost in the shadows of silence.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cNest
\u201cNest Compilation\u201d is featured in the drawers of \u2018Preservation\u2019. (Courtesy Christy Ferrato)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Projects included in the show are \u201cLocus Communis,\u201d \u201cPreservation,\u201d \u201cSaffron Threads,\u201d \u201cWard 54,\u201d \u201cGhost Image\u201d and \u201cNana Shrine.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPreservation\u201d features a library card cabinet sourced from Rutgers University that has 30 drawers, each one labeled with a school shooting in the U.S.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe top left hand drawer is for the University of Texas shooting in 1966, and the bottom right hand drawer is Parkland, Florida,\u201d Ferrato said. They are chronologically ordered based on the definition of a school massacre.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Preservation\u2019
\u2018Preservation\u2019 features an antique library card catalog from Rutgers University. (Courtesy Christy Ferrato)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Within each drawer is a woolen net, handmade by Ferrato, containing 211 bullet casings with names of each victim in the shooting. Bits of text are embedded in the nets, from sources who inspire her such as Walt Whitman.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach drawer is lined with a mirror so when you look inside, you\u2019ll see yourself,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I\u2019m kind of this weird installation artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

She settled on the idea of a card catalog because it is evocative of schools, but she said it reveals her age because few now know what a library card catalog is.<\/p>\n

One of the heroes and victims of the Virginia Tech shooting, Dr. Libiu Librescu<\/a>, was a Holocaust survivor who put his body in front of the door so others could escape through the window, Ferrato said. \u201cThere\u2019s something really compelling about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNana Shrine\u201d pays tribute to Ferrato\u2019s maternal grandmother, who she said was \u201cdevout, with a touch of rebelliousness. She left no doubt who was in charge.\u201d She descended from Danish lace makers who settled in Beaumont, Texas. \u201cNana was one of the most influential people in my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

With Nana\u2019s death coming when so many others from her family origin had passed, Ferrato felt a \u201cprofound sense of everything fading away as I tried so desperately to hang on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrato\u2019s family history is featured in the New Encyclopedia of Texas<\/a>. \u201cNana Shrine\u201d incorporates Volume I of the 1934 edition.<\/p>\n

The shrine includes an altar with heirloom handmade lace, a lock of her grandmother\u2019s hair, excerpts from her diary and a photograph of Nana standing in the distance. It fades into the past, reminding Ferrato of her roots.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cNana
\u201cNana Shrine\u201d pays homage to Ferrato\u2019s beloved maternal grandmother, Thelma Street. (Courtesy Christy Ferrato)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cLocus Communis\u201d was inspired by the border situation and is comprised of 16 text-filled plexiglass panels arranged to form an enclosed space.<\/p>\n

Ferrato visited El Paso and Las Cruces in 2017 where she walked across the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my gosh,\u201d she said, \u201cthis is no different than what I saw growing up. I didn\u2019t see thousands of people trying to crash the border.\u201d She said it was a \u201csleepy little situation\u201d then. \u201cWe\u2019re all immigrants \u2026 I started looking at different groups of people and how we\u2019ve marginalized them over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrato, working with Antoinette Oehme at The Big Idea Makerspace at San Juan College, produced the panels using the state-of-the-art laser printer to apply the text. The text for the panels came from research executive orders, laws and ordinances regarding immigration from 1776 forward. She selected four different laws or codes for each of the four featured groups: Native Americans, Mexican Americans, African Americans and Asian Americans.<\/p>\n

The 1942 Civilian Exclusion Order No. 69, Religions Crimes Codes of 1883, Arkansas Streetcar Segregation Act 1903 and the 1942 Executive Order No. 9102 Establishing War Relocation Authority are a few of the laws and orders featured. They highlight issues such as incarceration based on race and culture, the taking of lands and property, separation of families, unequal protection under the law, lack of due process and lack of access to education.<\/p>\n

Ferrato said she chose white on black background because \u201cthat\u2019s what it\u2019s all about \u2026 white imposing their will on color \u2026 people of color.\u201d Recorded audio profiles 16 people, four from each featured group, as they recite, \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the recordings are \u201cbarely audible, but present enough to show the tension\u201d between the Declaration of Independence and the current reality of inequality.<\/p>\n

An opening reception for \u201cAnamnesis \u2013 The Remembering of Things\u201d will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 2, at Henderson Fine Arts Gallery. The exhibit will run through March 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christy Ferrato\u2019s art spans spectrum of mixed media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[363,246,28,29,2378],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts","tag-arts-general","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-san-juan-college"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34850"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34850\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82775,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34850\/revisions\/82775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34850"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}