Jane Brucker: Fragile Thoughts | LBMA
Sept 28, 2018 – Jan 6, 2019
The 25 year survey presents Jane Brucker’s exploration of personal and collective history, mortality and fragility. A hallmark of Brucker’s work is the combining of found objects and heirlooms with other materials – textiles, wood, glass, paper, text, and cast metals to create works with a resonant poetic spirit and a tactile sensibility.
Many of the featured installations in the exhibition are on-going projects, cumulative over years of activity. An example is Memorial Project, begun in 2001, when Brucker crafted a small canvas from her late father’s favorite shirt to create a private remembrance piece for her mother. When her mother’s friends visited the house and saw it, they too recognized the shirt as belonging to her father. Each of the women visitors then asked to send a similar article of clothing. Brucker made each of them canvases the same size and shape as the one made in memory of her father. In 2018 Jane is still receiving articles to be included in Memorial Project. Participants like the idea that their own memorial piece is joining the others, creating a chorus of memory. There are over 300 pieces in this project on view at LBMA.
A new work created especially for the exhibition is also featured. For this installation, the artist received an invitation to collaborate with Judson Studios of Pasadena, through a grant from Pasadena Arts Alliance. Judson Studios is the oldest family-run stained glass studio in America. Fragile Thoughts is a tribute to Elizabeth Milbank Anderson, an early 20th century philanthropist who championed healthcare, education, women’s issues and the arts, and whose summer house still stands on the LBMA campus. In the exhibition, Fragile Thoughts, objects and materials are transformed through Brucker’s attention to detail. Simultaneously, narrative passages from her own family invite the audience to relate to shared themes and stories.
