Hera Gallery is proud to present Bearing Witness, a Hera Members Exhibition featuring: Alexandra Broches, Marne Snyder, & Abigail Wamboldt.

This exhibition will take place at Hera Gallery, located at 10 High Street in Wakefield, RI from October 15 through November 12, 2022. The public is invited to attend during our open Gallery hours, Wed- Fri (1-5pm) and Saturday (10am-4pm). Join the artists for an opening reception on Saturday October 15, from 6-8pm. Exhibiting artists Alexandra Broches and Abigail Wamboldt will host an artist talk at the closing of the exhibition on Saturday November 12, from 4-6pm. A virtual rendition of the exhibition will be fully available on heragallery.org. All Hera events are free and open to the public.

The exhibiting artists share works which showcase the unique human experience of Bearing Witness to the world as it unfolds around us. Alexandra Broches, will be presenting the series entitled diary-reconstructed. “While closing her family home after her father died, Broches found a box containing more letters, photographs and documents than she had previously seen. Her father rarely spoke about the loss of his family and what had happened to this Dutch Jewish family during World War II. So began a project that continues today to construct the family narrative and reflect on the process undertaken to understand who she is and where she came from.”

Marne Snyder will showcase a series of assemblages. “One piece has three figures, maybe a family group, separated and in a forest of leaves and trees at different scales. In another a female figure in a dress is running away, breaking out of a small frame within a larger frame of an abstracted environment. Snyder invites the viewers to make their own interpretations of the narratives. 

Abigail Wamboldt “creates out of the memory of a sensation or from visual material that manifests itself in [her] imagination.” Wamboldt will exhibit pieces which explore nature, nurture, and the human form. She says “We are part of the natural world, and we are products of the culture we have created. I am engaged in examining how these elements harmonize together to create an individual's multifaceted identity.” The pieces aim to “create a visual literature of women depicted with dignity and grace, while also considering the current and historical oppression of our gender.”

Alexandra Broches 

Alexandra Broches is the first-generation daughter of Dutch Jewish parents who arrived in New York in 1939.  Her life has been shaped in many ways by being the daughter of a father who lost his family in the Holocaust. When asked how long she has been working on Letters and Pictures from a Box, she explained “in a way there are two answers, the last three years, and second, probably my whole life.” Early series such as Markings of Loss, Traces of Presence (2001-2002) which combined her childhood drawings in juxtaposition with recent photographs creating fresh contextual layers of meaning in works about time, place and identity. Similarly, in 2004 and 2005 curatorial projects, Memory, Identity and Place and Sites of Memory and Honor proved to be precursors to the project Letters and Pictures from a Box. Through this project Broches continues to construct the family narrative and reflect on the process undertaken to understand who she is and where she comes from.

Broches lives and maintains her studio in Wakefield, Rhode Island. She is a founding member of Hera Gallery/Hera Educational Foundation one of the earliest women’s cooperative galleries in the U.S. and a pioneer in the development of alternative exhibition spaces across the country in the 1970s. Broches represented the gallery on a panel sponsored by the Women’s Caucus for Art at the NGO Forum on Women of the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. As a result of this meeting Hera Gallery participated in an exchange exhibition, Through Australian Women’s Eyes, organized by SWAN (School of Women Artist’s Network) and Hera Sojourns: Visions from North America at the University of Wollongong Gallery, Wollongong, Australia.

She has exhibited her work nationally and regionally in The Print Center, Philadelphia, PA, Morehead State University, Morehead, Kentucky; Newspace Center for Photography, Portland, OR; Eastern Carolina University, Greenville, NC; PhotoSpiva, Joplin, MO, Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA, Newport Art Museum, and Providence Center for Photographic Arts, the Providence Art Club, and Chazan Gallery at Wheeler School, RI. Recently her photographs were shown in the Jamestown Arts Center in two exhibitions, 5th Decade: Hera Gallery and WORD: Text in Contemporary Art. Broches has an MFA in Visual Art from Vermont College, an MA in Art History from Hunter College and a BA from Bennington College. She was a resident fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in 2008 and 2005. She has taught at Rhode Island College in Providence, RI, Cazenovia College, Cazenovia, NY, and the University of Rhode Island in Kingston, RI. She received a RISCA Fellowship in Photography Merit Award 2017

Her work can be seen at www.alexandrabroches.com

diary-reconstructed

The installation diary-reconstructed holds at its core an excerpt from the video performance of the reading of passages from the saved letters. My daughter Rachel, granddaughter Pepper, and I read in Dutch and English translation, surrounded by projections from my photographic composites, Dear Alexandra, Letters and Pictures From a Box (recorded in March 2021 at AHA! Night at UMass Dartmouth, New Bedford campus). The images of my family have been reduced to silhouettes to free the viewer to explore the universal. The seemingly small events depicted defuse realties not easily seen. The imprinted timeline is a record of profound consequences. These hallowed forms are place holders.

Letters and Pictures From a Box, 2015

My life has been shaped by memories and the experience of being the daughter of her father whose family died in the Holocaust. I am not alone in this experience. My brother and I emptied our childhood home after my father died and divided up paintings, books and other objects. I became the caretaker of the family slides and albums as well as letters, documents and photographs that my mother had saved from family abroad. The boxes contain many more letters and pictures than I had known about revealing painful details and stories about their lives and deaths in the war. Struggling over time to decide how to share this story and pass it on to my daughter, granddaughter, and nieces I finally began a photo and text project to construct the family narrative and to understand who I am and where I came from, Letters and Pictures From a Box, 2015. Gradually, from the initially undecipherable script, I began to feel I know those who are writing; they are no longer strangers, though we have never met. I remember, mourn, and create new memories as I honor my family. We cannot afford to forget.

Marne Snyder

When you enter the studio of Marne Snyder, you are entering a world of her imagination. The tables and shelves are full of small objects, ephemera, fabrics and decorative papers collected over many years and that may eventually become part of one of her mixed media artworks. Marne works on multiple pieces simultaneously, moving from one to another, changing elements, adding something, taking something away, finding the right fabric or patterned paper as a background. 

For the exhibition at Hera Marne selected works that all feature one or more three-dimensional figures and each piece reflects a different narrative or emotion. She is reluctant to reveal exactly what she was thinking when she arranged each work, but allows the viewer to make their own interpretation. One piece has three figures, maybe a family group, separated and in a forest of leaves and trees at different scales. In another a female figure in a dress is running away, breaking out of a small frame within a larger frame of an abstracted environment. A third piece has an elegant figurine, poised in a gesture of movement and strength, against a swirl of feathery fiber and patterned paper. She will also exhibit several small sculptural tableaus.

Abigail Wamboldt

Abigail Wamboldt was born in Massachusetts and raised in Massachusetts and California. She received a BFA from Montserrat College of Art, an MFA from the University of New Hampshire, and was a recipient of the Edwin & Mary Schafer Award, which allowed her to study in Italy. She currently lives in Rhode Island, and teaches studio art at several universities and colleges in New England. She endeavors to exhibit with organizations that inspire dialogue and innovation.

Artist Statement 

I create out of the memory of a sensation or from visual material that manifests itself in my imagination. When there is a need for more heightened realism I work from personal photographs and live models. Through this process I discuss and explore the interaction between physical, mental and emotional evolution in our contemporary environment. I am drawn to the two dimensional format because it feels like a window into another world. However, I sometimes feel the need to break the frame and bring the world of my imagination into a three dimensional installation. I gravitate towards tactile materials that allow me to become physically immersed in the experience of producing an artwork. My body is the vehicle for my interior images so I view the active component of making something the most

effective form of communicating my vision. Patterns and repetitions are a consistent, subtle part of my art. These patterns provide a structure in which the human forms undulate. Sometimes the patterns eliminate the figurative quality, obscuring the human form being embedded under the repetitions. Many of these patterns are derived from fractals in nature. Human development is based on both nature and nurture. We are part of the natural world, and we are products of the culture we have created. I am engaged in examining how these elements harmonize together to create an individual's multifaceted identity. I am specifically interested in the tenacity required of women. I attempt to be inclusive in my work without appropriating others’ pain. We are born with intuitive guides, and as female people develop we formulate ourselves within the rhythms of society. The collective beliefs and structures imposed upon women as we grow impact our behaviors, choices and self view. I endeavor to create a visual literature of women depicted with dignity and grace, while also considering the current and historical oppression of our gender.