In the dimly lit Ronald M. Ansin Gallery housing Tara Sellios’s solo exhibition at the Fitchburg Art Museum, the darkness creates a translucent view of the photographic work on display in “Ask Now the Beasts,” the hundreds of skeletal parts that make up each work slowly revealing themselves as the viewer’s eyes adjust to the room.
Mine were first beckoned to the color of blueberries on the lower portion of “Abundantia,” 2023, each surrounding item, of which there were many, seeming to hold their own unique meaning.
At a gallery talk on April 5, FAM’s Terry and Eva Herndon Assistant Curator Sarah Parker, who created the exhibition with FAM Curator Emily Mazzola, said that Sellios’ work “is filled with historical references that asks its viewers to find hope at the darkest time of the person’s life.”
Nothing like the present.
Comprised of bees, dried grapes, pomegranates and roses, grapevine cornucopia, praying mantises, wheat and a white-tailed deer (doe) skeleton, it is noted, in the accompanying text, “Despite the decay, there is still a note of hopefulness here. In the face of scarcity and deprivation, the disintegrating doe still makes an offering in the hopes of salvation and the bees still seek nectar, turning to the rotting fruit to find life sustaining nutrients.”
So much going on, so much to ponder, consider and learn about.
“I wanted an apocalyptic feel,” Sellios said, “I think of my work as theater and see each series of my work as a chapter.”