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"Not Just a House" at GASP, ‘Gentile Bellini’ at the Gardner, the Wilson Sisters at Harvard
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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Our homes protect us from the elements, but they also help hide our doings — mundane and otherwise — from others. They are one of the first things we learn to draw, after stick people, and the depth and breadth of their archetypal significance cannot be underestimated, as questions of what goes on behind closed doors, what’s hiding under the bed, and what kind of skeletons might be in the closet hint at the fear and uneasiness that co-occupy the realm of the safe and sound. Curated by artist Samantha Fields and opening at GASP (Gallery Artists Studio Projects) December 9, "Not Just a Home" examines the interior spaces of the home. Artist Juniper Perlis unleashes the dark side of the family unit in Father Photographs, a work that narrates her search for her missing father. Lynda Banzi looks at how we imprint on our domestic objects, and how our homes, and our home appliances, come to mirror ourselves, Charlie Coolidge deconstructs and reconstructs objects in the home to zero in on issues of domestic function and mutation. Nicole Ardent, Jessica Finch, Susannah Lawrence, and Fields herself further probe what might otherwise be swept under the rug in this sure-to-be unsettling show. Another domestic ritual — the dinner party — serves as the inspiration for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s annual Holiday Table, usually a High Victorian tribute to fine china and glittering stemware. This year’s offering gets a contemporary twist in "A Pagan Feast," as Gardner artist-in-residence Michele Iodice, a maverick set designer from Naples, turns the table on tradition by incorporating Gardner objects, including an ornate Roman mosaic, into the always elaborate dining installation. Then on December 14, "Gentile Bellini and the East" opens in the Gardner’s Special Exhibitions Gallery. Exploring the convergence of Mediterranean cultures during the Renaissance, "Bellini" celebrates Mrs. Gardner’s exquisite A Seated Scribe, which inspired a memorable installation in 1995 by then-artist-in-residence Juan Muñoz and promises to anchor a gem of a show now. Projecting strange and evocative spaces — including the former headquarters of the East German secret police and an abandoned house — onto big multiple surround screens has earned sisters Jane and Louise Wilson international renown. They’re speaking and signing a major new catalogue of their work at the Carpenter Center on December 8 . . . one hopes the room will not spin. "Not Just a House" @ GASP, 362-4 Boylston Street, Brookline | Dec 9–Jan 14 | 617.731.2500 or www397.pair.com/gasp1/# | "A Pagan Feast" and "Gentile Bellini and the East" @ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 the Fenway, Boston | through Jan 8 [Pagan Feast] and Dec 14–Mar 26 [Bellini] | 617.566.1401 or http://www.gardnermuseum.org/| "An Evening with Jane and Louise Wilson" @ Carpenter Center, 24 Quincy Street, Cambridge | Dec 8 @ 6 pm | 617.495.3251 or http://www.ves.fas.harvard.edu/events/wilsons.html.
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