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Gerda
Meyer Bernstein, Tribunal, 1998-99
Mixed media, walk-in installation
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Rockford
Art Museum presents an exhibition of four installations by
internationally recognized Chicago-based artist Gerda Meyer
Bernstein, who addresses thorny global issues in work that
explores both her personal history as a Holocaust survivor
and the collective history of humanity. In (Un)Civil Histories,
Bernstein presents a civilized environment in which visitors
experience very “uncivilized” events in history.
Each piece is rooted in a major issue or event of history
itself: the Holocaust in Tribunal; civil unrest and the countless
missing people in The Army of the Disappeared; human rights
violations in Exit Only; and casualties of war in her newest
piece, The Untold Story. Her installations are powerful yet
poetic reminders of atrocities committed against one another,
designed to allow for personal experiences that elicit one
desired response: compassion.
Rockford Art Museum is one of four institutions participating
in an area-wide exhibition of work by Bernstein called Bearing
Witness. Indiana University Northwest Gallery for Contemporary
Art (Gary, Ind.) exhibited The Hooded March, an installation
that documents, exposes and publicly refutes racist violence
(closed October 27). The Chicago Cultural Center exhibits
Freedom March, a celebration of the many people who have stood
up to be heard (opens March 16), which is included as part
of the “Celebrating Women in the Arts” bus trip
to Chicago (see the Education page for more information).
I space at the Chicago Gallery of the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign shows River, a comment on the never-contained
flow the AIDS virus, and Phoenix, a stark illustration of
the division between black and white (opens March 9).
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