INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION PRESS DOSSIER · COLOGNE· 2013
ART BLIND
By 2013, Barbara’s private adaptations—working large, using stencils, drawing from sound and memory—had become part of a wider international conversation about perception. Art Blind brought sixteen artists from nine countries to Cologne. Barbara was the sole United States artist and accompanied the exhibition with the KHM symposium talk Believing is Seeing and a workshop.
The organizers kept the frame; Barbara kept the paper. What survives is the invitation and poster, her contract and shipping trail, her own statement, bio and descriptions of the five canvases she offered, a recording from her KHM workshop, a thank-you from a Cologne primary school whose children she also taught that week, the festival’s film of the opening, and the photograph that settles which three paintings hung.
THE EXHIBITION
Sixteen artists, nine nations
Kunst im Stapelhaus, Kulturwerk des BBK Köln, Frankenwerft 35. A Sommerblut Kulturfestival event with Blinde und Kunst e.V. Curator Dr. Siegfried Saerberg; patron Prof. Anthony Cragg, who gave the welcoming speech at the private view on 17 May. Works could be touched; audio descriptions for blind visitors; a public prize by visitors’ vote.
THE WORKS
Three canvases hung
God’s Half-Witted Brother (1993), Bad Eye on the Good Foot (2002), Garden of Eden (2011)
Acrylic and mixed media on canvas · 48 × 72, 84 × 72 and 72 × 84 in.
She offered five—Fire: Burn (2009) and What Comes After Black (2001) were not hung. No organizer checklist names works; the Estate’s installation photograph is the record.
THE WEEK
Two workshops and a lecture
28 May 2013, KHM (Academy of Media Arts Cologne): the international symposium Visuality and Blindness in Art, her lecture Believing is Seeing, and a workshop for KHM students, credited “Prof. Barbara Romain.” The same week she ran a workshop for the children of OGS Severin-Schule, Cologne.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Barbara on the work she sent
“Swiss cheese” holes in my vision cause distortion in my perception due to a retinal degenerative disease which has rendered me legally blind. What I am able to see changes from moment to moment as a result of fluctuating light conditions and transitory states of my own alertness and well-being.
My paintings explore this state of flux—accidental encounters of forms and colors within a structure of layered symbols and texts, which are both quoted from a variety of sources such as songs, news headlines, junk mail, fortune cookies, and works of literature, as well as original texts such as alphabet poems, haikus, reflections of personal experience and streams of consciousness. Themes are often universal, but explored on many levels, from an urban, female viewpoint.
Inspiration is often derived from audio sources, particularly musical compositions. Elements of landscape and nature combine with urban graffiti, pop icons, pictographs, hieroglyphics and other ancient language texts in these often large color-field acrylic paintings.
The thrill of color upon color, which I can see in varying degrees, drives layer upon layer. I create original stencils to incorporate symbols and icons of imagery which I can no longer draw freehand.
These layered images often require visual “digging” by the viewer to unearth, and texts and meanings may not all be immediately apparent. The viewer is invited to traverse the canvas and create his/her own poetry and engage in a landscape of multiple meanings.
“‘Swiss cheese’ holes in my vision cause distortion in my perception… What I am able to see changes from moment to moment as a result of fluctuating light conditions and transitory states of my own alertness and well-being. My paintings explore this state of flux—accidental encounters of forms and colors within a structure of layered symbols and texts.”
— Barbara Romain, artist statement submitted to Art Blind, 2013
“The title refers to an African legend where God creates the perfect world and his half-witted brother messes things up.”
— Barbara Romain, description of God’s Half-Witted Brother for Art Blind, 2013
THE PRESS RECORD
What was written, printed and photographed
Every press release below states two facts: whether Barbara is named, and whether her artwork is highlighted.