Amidst the future and present there is a memory table

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Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Pho…
Amidst the future and present there is a memory table
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Photograph by John Bentham. © Firelei Báez.
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College. Photograph by John Bentham. © Firelei Báez.
Artist/Maker (American, born Dominican Republic 1981)
Date2013
MediumPigmented abaca, cotton, and linen on abaca base sheet with radiograph opaque ink
DimensionsSheet: 39 3/4 × 60 3/8 in. (101 × 153.4 cm) Frame: 45 1/8 × 65 5/8 × 2 7/8 in. (114.6 × 166.7 × 7.3 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund
Object number2016.7
Not on view
DescriptionFirelei Báez made Amidst the future and present there is a memory table at the innovative New York papermaking studio Dieu Donné (see also cat. no. 129). There, she created a series of works that reference the human body, partly inspired by the skin-like qualities of paper itself—a medium she refers to as a “surrogate self.” Her materials informed her iconography, as what she originally intended as landscapes evolved into silhouettes of bodies. Some of the silhouettes reference scrollwork, the elaborate ornamentation that appears in the margins of Persian miniatures and medieval European manuscripts. Born in the Dominican Republic and now based in Miami, Báez incorporates Caribbean folklore into her work and explores the ways in which women of color throughout history have subverted hierarchy and patriarchy in creative ways. She frequently sources images from YouTube videos, such as those showing women twerking (dancing provocatively in a low, bouncing squat) or wilding (participating in bare-knuckled fistfights); she is drawn to these subjects as indicators of antinormative female behavior. The figures that appear in Amidst the future and present there is a memory table have been abstracted through the process of marbling, a traditional papermaking technique embraced by the artist for its ability to incorporate bodily gestures into the form of the work. (SOURCE: Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS, 2017) Created at the Dieu Donne Papermil in New York City.
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Additional Details

Exhibition History 2017
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art, Hamilton College). "Innovative Approaches, Honored Traditions: The Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Five Years, Highlights from the Permanent Collection," September 9 - December 10, 2017 (cat. no. 131, illus.);

2016
Clinton, NY (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College). "Pure Pulp: Contemporary Artists Working in Paper at Dieu Donné," February 6 - April 10, 2016 (unnumbered cat., illus.). Traveled to: Atlanta, GA (Williams Museum of Papermaking), June 9 - August 5, 2016; New York, NY (Dedalus Foundation), September 8 - October 16, 2016.
Provenance 2016: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Gallery Wendi Norris.
Published References Katherine D. Alcauskas, INNOVATIVE APPROACHES, HONORED TRADITIONS: THE RUTH AND ELMER WELLIN MUSEUM OF ART AT FIVE YEARS, HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION (Clinton, NY: Wellin Museum of Art, 2017), p. 284;

Bridget Donlon, PURE PULP: CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS WORKING IN PAPER AT DIEU DONNÉ (Clinton, NY: Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art; Munich: DelMonico Books-Prestel, 2016), pp. 40, 122, illus.p. 41-43.

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