Local artists showcase works, including canvas paintings, wooden sculptures, wreaths
Walking through the doors of the South Carolina State Museum’s Lipscomb Gallery, one thing becomes immediately clear: From the colorful, hand-stitched quilts lining the walls to the gently carved wooden sculptures brightly lit in glass display cases, “Uncommon Folk” is certainly no ordinary exhibit.
Premiering earlier this year, “Uncommon Folk” takes a look at some of the most intriguing and original folk art from artists living in various regions around the Carolinas. Many of the artifacts have rarely (if ever) been seen by the public eye, and with just one quick glance, it is easy to see the time and commitment that each artist has funneled into handcrafting each unique piece.
Upon entering the gallery, visitors are quickly met with some of the oldest pieces in the exhibit, including a linen dress from 1917 sewn together to resemble the American flag as well as a small collection of wooden figures hand-carved from poplar trees into miniature human beings by artist Maxie McConnell Eades.
Also included is a mounted and framed wreath, although this is not quite the type you’d want to display on your front door. This wreath, crafted around 1890, has been twisted and braided into the shape of a striking tree using authentic human hair, following an old tradition of remembering a lost loved one.
Moving through the exhibit, visitors come upon a room almost completely dedicated to Orangeburg artist L.C. Carson, infamous for his work in creating an entire “concrete city” in his own backyard. Waist-tall versions of the Roman Colosseum, the Athenian Parthenon and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon are the girth of the display, where delicately detailed shapes and texture intermingle with the large slabs of concrete that make up the landmarks. Carson’s work also contains brightly colored dimensional paintings with hand-cut pieces that stand out from the art, including a self-portrait of the artist himself, so that he may always look over his work on display in the museum.
Perhaps one of if not the most interesting displays in the gallery is the “Wild West Town” crafted by the “backwoods sculptor” Herman Thompson this year. The town has everything you would expect to see in a Western: a saloon called the Buckeye where men puff away on big cigars while knocking back drinks and playing cards around the table, a fisherman holding up the day’s catch, women in hoop skirts gossiping and another man riding his donkey through the busy street.
It’s everything you’d expect, except for one thing — this town is made completely of unbent wire hangers and a random assortment of objects the artist simply found. The town is lifelike right down to the smoke blowing from the “lit” pipes and the wheels on the covered wagon, and it is clear that this folk art is anything but common.
The exhibit also houses a variety of semi-ordinary items that have been transformed into astonishing works of art, many by artists who were self-taught and began their careers later in their lives.
Included in these is a vast collection of “face jugs,” which are simply hand-fired stoneware pieces that have been decorated with a never ending array of exaggerated faces staring back from the front of the jars. Here, function has become fashion, and each artist’s personality is visible in the handcrafted, intricate details of each sneering, smiling, laughing face. This idea of transformation left a big impression on Gina Griffin, who was visiting the museum from Beaufort, N.C.
“One of the things that struck me the most was the time and imagination an artist would put into something so utilitarian,” Griffin said. “To many of us, a bowl is just a bowl, but the artists make it beautiful and turn it into so much more.”
And what folk art display is complete without Columbia’s own “Chicken Man” Ernest Lee? The gallery accommodates many of Lee’s trademark vibrant “funky chicken” pieces, as well as the Lee Rock City trailer covered with Lowcountry murals, tiny boats and of course, chickens.
“Uncommon Folk” is on display until May of 2012 in the Lipscomb Gallery at the South Carolina State Museum. Admission is $7.
More Like This
Road Trip Towns: Savannah, GA
By Katie Rosen | Feb. 3, 2016