Art Professor Candice Ivy's Installation at Fitchburg Art Museum

Professor Candice Ivy’s exhibition, “After Spiritualism; Loss and Transcendence in Contemporary Art,” is currently at the Fitchburg Art Museum through September 6. Linda Crossman, Curator of the group exhibit, describes it as “an occasion to reflect on personal and shared losses through varied contemporary art practices. The works on view materialize trauma and mourning, at times confronting historical conflicts and seeking to overcome long-standing divisions. The exhibition is inspired by Spiritualism’s aim to connect the living with the dead for comfort, guidance, and enlightenment.

Spiritualism is a science, religion, and philosophy that developed in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century and grew in popularity through the early twentieth century. The movement was initially defined by its aspirations for reform, as it advocated for women’s rights and suffrage, abolitionism, and democratic access to a spiritual realm. Spiritualism spread nationally and internationally. It has a rich history in New England, parts of which will be explored in a section of ephemera and artworks in the Learning Lounge that will accompany the exhibition. Espiritismo (which, while distinct from Spiritualism, shares some common features, including ties to reform and spirit communication) will also be explored through the work of some artists.

While only a few of the participating artists practice Spiritualism or Espiritismo, they all explore broader, interconnected themes such as the impact of history on the present, transgression and agency through ritual, and the experience and residue of loss.” More information about the exhibit, organized by Curator Lisa Crossman with Terrana Curatorial Fellow Marjorie Rawle, is available here.

Professor Ivy was also recently interviewed at the museum by Assistant Curator, Marjorie Rawles, about her work there, entitled Hummm. In this brief, twenty-minute interview, Ivy talks about her creative process, materials, and themes of transformation and the feminine. As Ivy says, “Hummm—a word that elicits sound and somatic reverberation—brings together three physical materials: clay, wood, and glass. Two more key, and often overlooked materials are also present: the body of the viewer and the impact of this moment in time. These five elements combine to produce an alchemy of sorts, and a type of resonance that is at once transformative and elemental. 

Using the tactile language of the natural world, Hummm is a kind of embodied force of the ecofeminine. She is a shapeshifter, eluding and transient, who holds the viewer between the dichotomies of hard and soft, strong and gentle, and cycles of creation and destruction. 

Hummm draws on the felt state where these forces unfold and activate. She opens herself physically and visually around the viewer, giving an embrace that holds the potential for something new to emerge.” Visit here for the full interview.