
“Sailing to the Edge,” Andy Zimmermann’s current exhibit at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, is a masterpiece. Rare is the exhibit that explores both life and death simultaneously, with insight, originality and superb craftsmanship. Zimmermann’s show is an important exhibition as we cope with the virus pandemic, struggling with life and facing death every day.
Sometimes, everything changes radically and we see things with new eyes and new emotions, and the virus has done that for us. Zimmermann’s exhibit can be experienced two ways: with former “happy eyes,” or with eyes newly opened to view a cultural world in chaos. First, I will discuss his work with “happy eyes” as he created and intended it before the virus invaded. As I write this today, April 14, 2020, “Sailing to the Edge” may be interpreted using two radically different iconographic systems. In the last part of this review, I will discuss its symbolism with new “sad eyes,” so please read through to the end.
Silver sails in the sunset. Magical moonlit nights, sailing becalmed, with white triangles overhead. Charles River dotted with small white triangles flitting up and down like butterflies. The hundreds of wind- tilted triangles of an ocean-sailing regatta. Zimmermann’s “Too Close,” evokes all these memories.