"Untold Narratives - A Seductive Echo"

“Untold Narratives - A Seductive Echo” By Sunny Nagpaul There’s no doubt that speech is one of the most powerful tools people have for connection. But in the face of some of the country’s most dividing issues, like disability, sexuality, gender identity or immigration, language can quickly become divisive, and weaponized through slurs and stereotypes. Artists at the Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos’ latest exhibition, titled “Untold Narratives - A Seductive Echo,” seem to have the same question on their mind. When language hurts people more than it helps, how can we still understand each other? Artist Ari Wolff was thinking about the parts of conversations that are unmapped while making ink drawings and a large sculpture of knots, titled “Semantic Knots,” which are on display at the gallery. “So much of our communication is via text or email,” Wolff said. “There are unspoken or un-languagable things that are happening.” The sculpture was a two-year project, on display for the first time, and is also the fruit of her first foray into sculpting. “It started as a knot in my stomach,” Wolff said. The sculpture consists of hundreds of indigo-colored polymer clay knots, suspended individually from the ceiling, that cast circular shadows on a large roll of white paper behind them. The knots are unable to perform its main purpose of holding things together–a concept that Wolff thought strikes a semblance to her struggles with reading. “I was thinking about learning how to read and some of the struggles that I had, and how to show this invisible thing, and the shadows that exist and move towards it.” Wolff is also a writer and educator based in Queens, whose work is about normalizing different ways of seeing. “It’s harder to talk about or write about,” she said. “This is the place I make art from.” Curator Michelle Song believes many artists think about the limits of traditional communication. “Especially when, for example, you’re in the diaspora and you’re trying to explain yourself to others. That hits a wall sometimes,” she said. The exhibition’s theme is based on the Roman myth of Echo and Narcissus, the story of a speechless nymph who falls in love with a man that is infatuated with his own reflection.