What it Means to Linger
Posted: April 5, 2024 Filed under: Current Exhibition | Tags: art, artist in residence, contemporary, Contemporary Art, exhibition, exhibitions, gallery, installation, performance, sculpture, soft sculpture, stamp gallery, Stamp Student Union, textiles, UMD, University of Maryland Leave a commentI Resist This from March 4 to April 6, 2024 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Reshma Jasmin
The first time I visited Stamp Gallery’s I Resist This was on its fourth day open. The current exhibition takes the form of an artist residency, which means that the artist, Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, would be working on the pieces for the exhibition in the gallery itself throughout the course of the program. I had met Richardson-Deppe prior to this exhibition, but I didn’t know her in the context of her work as an artist. I also had never encountered a behind-the-scenes look into the artistic process serving as an artform itself. As such, I was looking forward to talking to her about the inspiration behind her choice to perform her process and watching her in action. But on my first day in the gallery, I was alone. A bit later, someone came in, and commiserated with me about not seeing Richardson-Deppe. But she noted that she saw traces of Richardson-Deppe’s presence over the course of hours or days— in Crocs which had been moved and through progress on a textile piece that was splayed out on benches.
When I came in the next day, I did see Richardson-Deppe, and I was able to chat with her and watch her work for hours. I learned about the function of her two sewing machines; one that was well equipped for heavier fabrics (machine on the left) and the other that was meant only for hemming (machine on the right). She told me about her thrift-store strategy of buying a large quantity of cheap clothes and how she mostly collected sweaters, pull-overs, sweatpants, and leggings by chance, but that such heavier materials held up longer for her wearable creations.
I Resist This is an exploration of interdependence versus independence, and, in many ways, serves as social commentary about the futile desire for complete independence and the simultaneously undeniable need for social support. To one of the many UMD art courses that visited the gallery, Richardson-Deppe described how she wanted to make visible the invisible relationships and networks and explore different social dynamics. e also mentioned that her wearable pieces did eventually rip during performance, but that it was an expected and welcome end. She informed me that she also teaches in the art department, and I came in during the exact hours she taught a class the day before. I was relieved that I’d be able to see Richardson-Deppe once a week, so the disappointment of the day before dissipated. But the movement of her Crocs lingered in my mind. Why was the sign of previous presence more melancholic than absence alone?
Whenever I was in the gallery sans Richardson-Deppe, I’d look for her Crocs, and sure enough, they’d be in a different location than when I last saw them (See if you can spot them in the photos below!). It was comforting to know she had been there, but she also felt just out of reach. Would I see her again? Absolutely, and it would often be the very next day, and I knew that. And yet, each time I didn’t see her, I felt as though we were two ships passing in the night.
My expectations all came from the descriptor: Artist-In-Residence. “___-in-residence” is most commonly used for professors, artists, poets, etc. This use comes from the definition of “resident” from the 14th century Medieval Latin word residentem and/or residens, which refers to one who dwells in one location to fulfill their duty in a Christian mission/obligation sense. The phrase “___-in-residence” and the expanded context of the definition only began showing up in the 19th century.
Related to resident is residence, or in Medieval Latin, residentia, which means is one’s dwelling place or the act of dwelling in a place. These words are derivatives of residere, which is Medieval Latin for reside. The broken down meaning is “re-”: back, again and “sidere”/“sed”: to sit. Together, residere means “sit down, settle; remain behind, rest, linger; be left.”
Richardson-Deppe’s pieces rest, remain, and are left behind while she’s not in the gallery. But Richardson-Deppe also lingers and settles in the gallery during the moments she herself is absent from the space. The growing piles of soft sculpture, the textile pieces approaching completion, the ever-changing composition of the items resting on her worktable, and of course, the silently moving Crocs all continue her performance of creation. The fact that all such changes occurred are signs of life, signs of Richardson-Deppe.
I Resist This is an exploration of interdependence versus independence, and, in many ways, serves as social commentary about the futile desire for complete independence and the simultaneously undeniable need for social support. To one of the many UMD art courses that visited the gallery, Richardson-Deppe described how she wanted to make visible the invisible relationships and networks and explore different social dynamics.
The relationship between an artist and their labor is typically invisible; most exhibitions only display completed artwork, and even if an artist is present at times to discuss their process and inspiration, we don’t get to see them at work. Through her residency, when Richardson-Deppe is in the gallery, her hands on the textiles and sewing machine are seen; as the maker she is part of her work. However, even residents of homes leave to fulfill their other responsibilities and live out other parts of their lives. One part of being a “resident” involves leaving and returning, being absent and present. In the moments when Richardson-Deppe is not in the gallery, the connection to her work that was once visible disappears. Yet, though we do not see her, we still unconsciously perceive her presence in the changes to her work and workspace. What is invisible is still there, even if it only exists in the abstract understanding that change occurred and someone was responsible for it. Like Richardson-Deppe suggests through her work, even invisible relationships are inarguably present.
Humans look for signs of life everywhere. In space, we search for biomarkers, water/ice, radio waves, pollution. In biology, we look for order, sensitivity or response to the environment, reproduction, growth and development, regulation, homeostasis, and energy processing. In my homes, I look for whose shoes are present and which ones; I notice what food in the fridge is slowly decreasing and whether things have been shuffled around; what the arrangement of dishes in the dishwasher looks like; what doors are open; whether there are lights turned on and which ones. I look not only for signs that someone was home or not, but also for signs of who specifically is, and what they might be up to, how they feel.
Even when their presence is dubious, we look for people. Regardless of how lonesome we feel, when we search for people, and even when they aren’t around, we find them. Sometimes, we’re not even looking for them but we feel them throughout their absence nonetheless. Even when Richardson-Deppe isn’t in the gallery, she lingers.
Our presence in each others’ lives is irrefutable and irrevocable. People come and go, but there are always the traces they leave behind. And as melancholy as it is to feel each other linger, there’s a comfort in knowing that people are always around us, that they always stay with us.
Charlotte Richardson-Deppe’s work is included in I Resist This at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from March 4th to April 6th, 2024. Richardson-Deppe will end her artist residency with the performance I Resist This on April 6th, 2024 at 7pm.
- For more information on Richardson-Deppe, visit https://www.charlotte-rd.com/.
- For more information on I Resist This and related events, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/centers/stamp_gallery.
Soft Sculpture: Spaces Between the Stitches
Posted: April 5, 2024 Filed under: Current Exhibition, Uncategorized | Tags: Contemporary Art, performance, sculpture, soft sculpture, stamp gallery Leave a commentI Resist This from March 4, to April 6, 2024, at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Trinitee Tatum
Ancient statues rise from the cold, marble floors of their enclosures, their colors faded and forgotten with time. The Statue of Liberty has now cloaked itself in a sea foam green, long separated from its copper origins. Mastery of such austere, “noble” materials has defined the sculptor’s craft for millennia; however, for as long as traditional art has existed, there has been resistance to the status quo. The lengthy history of “fine art” in Western canon has been distinctly gendered male and is deeply intertwined with the social principle of individualism. The substitution of these heavily symbolic sculpting materials for the more malleable sort of cloth, paper, and fur makes fine art accessible to those on the margins of industry and excluded from the dominant narrative. By emphasizing the manipulation of everyday materials, soft sculpture protests the inherently privileged position of working with precious rocks and metals. Charlotte Richardson-Deppe’s soft sculpture work critiques the classist and sexist gatekeeping of fine art through the practice itself, as well as through the sustainable sourcing of materials at second-hand stores, emphasizing accessible methods of acquisition. Beyond the innate rebellion against conventional sculpting, soft sculpture manifests as a projection of the human body and its most intimate connections beyond itself, a communal embrace.
I exaggerate bodies and replicate limbs, making visible the ways humans connect and relate to one another.
Charlotte Richardson-Deppe via website
Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, Blue (Soft-sculpture and performance) 2023. Photographs by Mark Williams.
Richardson-Deppe’s pieces take over the human figure, obscuring what the body looks, feels, and sounds like to visibly render kinship and community ties that reside under the surface of our daily lives. This work parallels Nick Cave’s “Soundsuits” performances, especially in how Richardson-Deppe employs both performers and audience members to activate and participate in her soft sculptures. Contrasting Richardson-Deppe’s playful artistic ethos stemming from her background in the circus, Cave’s pieces are imbued with the struggle against racial inequity and violence, serving as “metaphorical suits of armor” and “vehicles of empowerment.” Cave’s suit activations double as community celebrations with the radical collaboration process, juxtaposing traditional, individualistic notions of art-making.
Nick Cave, Speak Louder (Mixed media), 2011
Despite these differences, both artists utilize anonymity to draw the audience’s attention to the body’s presence in its totality rather than the age, race, gender, or other identity markers of the wearer. This objective viewing prompts the audience to look beyond the shallow, habitual judgments we pass and cherish the body’s ability to connect and be connected profoundly with others.
There is something in me which is the same as you. I am you.
Mari Katayama via website
The presence of the audience and their active engagement with the work of I Resist This is crucial to Richardson-Deppe’s exploration of both the playful and serious aspects of human connection. The Stamp Gallery’s space has been reshaped into a middle ground where the artist and the viewer meet in dialogue, blurring the distinctions between the viewer’s, the artist’s and the artwork’s space. By being integrated into the Gallery’s space, the artist herself and her work is exposed to all that choose to see, and demand participation from all who choose to engage. As Richardson-Deppe’s residency comes to a close, I Resist This invites viewers in one last time to bear witness to its metamorphosis before dispersing within all of us as ephemeral memories.
Charlotte Richardson-Deppe’s work is included in I Resist This at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from March 4 to April 6, 2024. Please join us for the concluding performance of Richardson-Deppe’s artist residency on April 6, 2024 at 7pm.
- For more information on Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, visit https://www.charlotte-rd.com/.
- For more information on I Resist This and related events at The Stamp Gallery, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/centers/stamp_gallery.
Questioning Individualism
Posted: April 1, 2024 Filed under: Current Exhibition | Tags: Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, Contemporary Art, I Resist This, soft sculpture, stamp gallery, UMD, University of Maryland Leave a commentI Resist This from March 4th to April 6th, 2024 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Rachel Schmid-James
Visual art has become an individualistic art form over the last few hundred years, but it has not always been this way. Before it was considered an independent task, it was a way to bind communities together. Art has always been a part of humanity, and from the very start it has been a group project. Some of the first examples we have of humans creating art are cave paintings created thousands of years ago. These simple paintings involved everybody in the community; even the youngest children would be lifted to the ceiling to add their handprints to the walls. However, at some point down the line, industrialization in the Western world made us pull away from communal values in search of individualism. This dichotomy can be seen in soft sculptor and performance artist Charlotte Richardson-Deppe’s work: independence and togetherness have their own positive and negative aspects. She uses her performances to explore the idea of community; asking us why we are all so afraid to ask for help, and why we are so desperate to break away from each other in the first place.
Richardson-Deppe discusses this concept in an interview with writer Charlee Dryoff as it relates to her past, present, and future projects. In her sister works titled Yellow and Blue, these struggles are front and center. In Yellow, two performers twist together in a multi-person bodysuit that attaches them at their arms and legs. While they can still move their torsos and heads freely, they have to work together to walk, fighting against each other as they do so. In contrast, Blue costumes a single person who is enrobed in ropes of blue fabric. While they are protected from the outside world and the tensions which appear in Yellow, the wearer is completely isolated and restricted by the garment. Richardson-Deppe explains that these two works are meant to represent that “both connection and loneliness have benefits and hardships.” One must sometimes choose whether to be safe from stress and tension with others but be totally alone, or to be with others and struggle to win back the independence that society has told us to crave. As seen in examples such as the cave paintings, humans are communal creatures that are meant to lean on each other for help and support. This does not mean that the struggle for independence is not valid, but it does make you question why you want independence so badly in the first place. Richardson-Deppe shows that she also struggles with these concepts, but says that she is challenging them through the simple act of asking for help. “Asking for help is profound, vulnerable, necessary, and we all should be doing it more often,” Richardson-Deppe says. “It is also reciprocal—I will help you hang your exhibition, and you will help me film my performance. I will carry your sculpture and you will proofread my application.” As in Yellow and Blue, her new performance I Resist This, which will be performed at the Stamp Gallery on April 6, shows the value of asking. The final performance will include multiple performers all attached by the same soft sculpture. They will have to rely on each other and help pull one another, but their tension and resistance will make it difficult to do this. It is hard to accept support when everything around us suggests weakness, but Richardson-Deppe asks the audience to think deeper and take that first step towards a more supportive way of being.
Charlotte Richardson-Deppe’s work is included in I Resist This at The Stamp Gallery of the University of Maryland, College Park, from March 4th to April 6th, 2024. Richardson-Deppe end her artist residency with a performance of I Resist This on April 6th, 2024 at 7pm. For more information on Richardson-Deppe, visit https://www.charlotte-rd.com/. For more information on I Resist This and related events, visit https://stamp.umd.edu/centers/stamp_gallery.
Exploring Independence and Interdependence Through I Resist This
Posted: March 27, 2024 Filed under: Current Exhibition, Top Picks! | Tags: art, Charlotte Richardson-Deppe, I Resist This, soft sculpture, stamp gallery, UMD, University of Maryland Leave a commentPlaceholder from March 4 to April 6, 2024 at The Stamp Gallery | University of Maryland, College Park | Written by Ellen Zhang
The conflict of independence versus interdependence has always been a silent yet prominent theme in human life. From a young age, we crave independence with stubborn I-can-do-everything-by-myself attitudes that continue into our adulthood. However, humans are fundamentally social creatures, relying on the people around us to achieve some sense of fulfillment. Expressions of independence and interdependence often manifest in intriguing ways. Charlotte Richardson-Deppe explores this concept through her evolving, interactive exhibition, I Resist This, where she utilizes the Stamp Gallery as a workspace to complete her new work of soft sculpture performance.
One way in which Richardson-Deppe reveals the tension between independence and interdependence is by sewing together shirts and pants, which are then hung from the ceiling. The laws of physics are clearly at play: gravity and suspension create a state of equilibrium. Gravity pulls the fabric downwards whereas the parts connected to the ceiling pull the fabric upwards. As a result, the collective string of shirts or pants remains stable and motionless. However, when we look closer at the individual shirts and pants, there is an evident struggle. An individual piece strives to break free while surrounding pieces pull it closer to the complete assemblage. There’s a delicate balance in effect. The independent bodies depend on each other to counter gravity but, at the same time, are individually struggling for autonomy. Through this, Richardson-Deppe captures the essence of independence versus interdependence perfectly: the intricate dance between individuality and interconnectedness within a collective fabric of humanity.
One of the standout pieces in Richardson-Deppe’s exhibition is her piece “Pants with Friends”. Here, the medium between the indigo leggings and blue velour pants is a different fabric cut: an arm sleeve. The sleeve acts as a conduit through which new perspectives, experiences, and emotions flow. This shows how the connecting force between two individuals enriches their separate lives.
What’s particularly intriguing about Richardson-Deppe’s exhibition is its interactiveness. Her exhibition consists of wearables to be worn and presented as elements of interactive performances. The purpose is to facilitate conversations on interdependence and care. Richardson-Deppe’s exhibition helps us recognize dependency as a necessity but not at the expense of individuality. Dependent relationships enrich our lives—think of the people we call mentors, confidants, and lifetime supporters. At the same time, Charlotte’s work reminds us that freedom and autonomy are important. In fact, we care more about setting boundaries and cultivating healthy relationships when these desires are embraced.
I Resist This is a space to explore the tensions between autonomy and reliance and how individual freedom is necessary to care for ourselves and others. By presenting her work as interactive performances featuring performers and audience members, Richardson-Deppe is actively practicing community engagement, which is fundamentally interdependent. By expressing independence versus interdependence in her exhibition and actively practicing it in the culminating performance, she invites us to ponder our roles within communities and the dynamics of relationships.
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