Kelly Stevenson's 'How Far I've Fallen' closes Art Gallery season

BY SCOTT STEPHENSON

There’s been talk around the town of Blyth recently about the unusual addition of an unkempt bed to Memorial Hall’s Bainton Gallery. Speculations that it was the nest of an eccentric new artist in residence weren't too far from the truth - the messy bed turned out to be just one of the many striking visual elements of “How Far I’ve Fallen,” the latest exhibition from Blyth-based artist Kelly Stevenson. 

 

The show’s opening on Aug. 19 welcomed Stevenson’s friends, family and members of the local art scene. The installation’s unique layout and interactive elements sparked animated discussions between strangers and familiars alike.

 

The exhibition’s narrative is highly subjective, constructed out of Stevenson’s labyrinthine landscapes, populated by a recurring figure known as the Everyman - a Meander-esque character who stares out of the shadowy doorways of crumbling barns and congregates like pigeons on the skeletal buildings of their rural habitat.

 

Countering these intricately inked renderings of local un-landmarks are red-framed sentiments of negativity and disparagements, askew with criticisms of the work and the artist behind it.

 

The quality of the works themselves are the only rebuttal the Everymen need against the onslaught of invasive thought-art - they exist as their own reason for being, and are impervious to outside influences. But people are not islands unto themselves - we are permeable beings, and negative thoughts and feelings are capable of overwhelming any of us. Hence the practicality of having a bed in the gallery as a symbol of the universal refuge/prison of despair.

 

The Bainton Gallery most recently hosted a much more austere showing of Japanese-inspired pottery - an exhibition in which a glowing neon sign cheerfully telling visitors to “Shut Up!” would have seemed out of place. Not so at Stevenson’s show, where rude interruptions are given the same amount of space as the works that they are intruding upon - a fictionalized reality that reflects the ratios of real life for so many people. Each person who struggles with mental health travels their own path and “How Far I’ve Fallen” questions whether we must travel those paths alone, by putting on display the thoughts and feelings that most people keep secret, and exposing the undue power those thoughts can hold over us.

 

While it obviously requires a degree of bravery to take such a naked approach to taboo subjects, it requires an equal measure of intellect to approach those taboos in a way that is both visually-appealing and comprehensible for a wide audience. Stevenson has achieved that with “How Far I’ve Fallen.” To paraphrase a guy who fought more than his fair share of dark thoughts: all well-made beds are alike; each messy bed is messy in its own way.

 

“How Far I’ve Fallen” will be at the Bainton Gallery until Sept. 9.