exhibitions - stella maris

S T E L L A M A R I S:
AN AGITPROP INSTALLATION
by J.W. Mahoney
January 13 - February 17, 2007

Stella Maris: J.W. Mahoney presents an agitprop installation of works on paper and cloth that meditates upon the subject of the feminine through a dynamic combination of mysterious digitized imagery, poetic texts, and turn-of-the century Viennese, old Russian and Japanese design principles. Mahoney's approach to content is distinctive - and always immediately recognizable by his cognoscenti - as he coaxes dense emotional questions out of loaded images and ideas.

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The artist writes of the work, "Stella Maris, Latin for Star of the Sea," is one of the appellations of the Virgin Mary, and its origins, predating the year 1000, are very obscure, from a possible misreading of the writings of St. Jerome to a reference in the Bible’s Book of Kings I. I've always believed it was a syncretic transposition of Aphrodite, the Morning Star, born from the sea off Cyprus, into Jesus; mother, the only female deity allowed into Christianity. The Star of the Sea is a symbol of radiance appearing in an infinite sky, over a horizon above an infinite depth.

This exhibition's strategy is also one of transpositions. First, my mother passed away after a long illness this fall, and the timing of this show offered a real possibility for making an artwork for her, which condensed as an inquiry into the mystery of the feminine, and, necessarily, the power of the Other.

A second transposition is that of technique. These pieces are made from digitized images that have been printed out, re-digitized, then re-printed. My former use of xerography offered the suggestions that its images were tracings, like those in memories or dreams, and double-digitizing creates the same effect, with more subtlety. Contemporary graphics are rigorously pristine presentations untouched by circumstance or history, and these images, created with a casually uncleaned printer, destabilize the finish and sheen of commercial propriety.

Third, watching Warren Beatty’s Reds recently brought the Russian Revolution's agitprop (agitation/propaganda) activities back to mind, as well as the radical poster-making that emerged between 1890 and 1925 - from the minimalized graphics of Austrian Secessionist posters (often featuring women) of Alfred Roller, Kolo Moser, and Gustav Klimt, to the geometric abstractions in the Russians' works ­ those of the Stenberg brothers, Alexander Rodchenko, and El Lissitsky. The installation elements are derivations from other Russian agitprop projects, the abstract decorations of walls, parade floats, and trains. The pieces in this show are not, however, either declarations or exhortations. They are agitations and propaganda for the enduring presence of real mysteries."

artist statement

J.W. Mahoney is an artist, writer, and curator based in Virginia. A graduate of Harvard University, he has exhibited his work in the United States for over 25 years. Additionally, he is an active independent curator who constantly encourages younger artists and assembles new and unusual contexts for their works. He writes for numerous publications, including Art in America, ArtNews, and Art Papers. He is an educator at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Mahoney is known and admired for his visionary mind and unusual eye and has had a tremendous influence on the cultural life of Washington, DC and its environs.