Eve Wood: Hanging in There to Hang On

About

Track 16 is pleased to present Eve Wood’s inaugural exhibition with the gallery entitledHanging in There to Hang On. On display are 27 drawings using gouache, graphite, and oil stick on paper, as well as sculptures that utilize everyday objects including socks, shoes, men’s ties and coat hangers. Simultaneously dark and witty, the exhibition touches on themes of duality (black vs. white, angel vs devil, good vs. Evil), with sardonic undertones that suggest an ever-widening chasm of political unrest.

Wood, also a writer, uses humor to create points of entry within her work. For example, on one wall are 18 individual sculptures using hangers, called “hang ups.” The play on words suggests personal idiosyncrasies, i.e., problems, yet no obvious resolutions are given. Some objects are more overtly political as in Hang Up #16 (A Mile In My Shoes, 3,000 in Yours) which references the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Roe v. Wade. These sculptures make use of the natural symmetry and balance that is inherent within the objects themselves. Another hanger is wrapped in the rainbow colors of the LGBTQ flag, while from another dangle twelve small, silver nooses, which allude to the brutality and bigotry that is an inextricable part of our collective history in this country. In another Hang Up, decorative craft letters are used to subvert their original intention of benign messages for children like “Happy Birthday,” and instead become a sign that declares, “FUCK OFF.” 

Wood brings this same sardonic wit and attention to her drawings, creating an amalgam of intuitively delicate, yet agitated shapes and lines that define the figures they represent against a ground of transparent, painterly strokes in pale hues. Recurring images of birds and dinosaurs interact with fragile human bodies in various stages of undress. Wood’s fascination with dinosaurs is an extension of her interest in birds, which represent a powerful, yet uncontrollable force; when pitted against these various creatures, the human figures appear even more fragile and lost inside their own lives. One figure sits, meditating, atop a Tyrannosaurus Rex, while another reacts in startled dissociative fear as a dinosaur slyly approaches. Subtle commentary on political division and specifically the issue of abortion is also highlighted in Return to Barbarism, where a bare-chested male figure balances on one leg, sporting a bizarre pair of tights with a happy face scrawled across the crotch and holding a hanger in each hand. Staring straight at the viewer, looking stunned with mouth agape, the drawing suggests a performative aspect, i.e., a deranged jester holding hostage the future of women’s reproductive rights. Finally, the content of much of the work in the exhibition alludes to very serious themes, yet Wood’s approach to these themes is simultaneously subtle, humorous, and deeply affecting.