Visible Light

Erin Currier

text by Rosette Gonzales

As world falls deeper into a state of complacency, it is a rare to find an artist that challenges the status quo like Erin Currier. Erin wastes no time coddling her viewers. She boldly articulates personal political and spiritual beliefs through her work. Unafraid to tackle issues such as the oppression of women, rampant commercialism and the ill effects of unchecked globalization, Erin demands the viewer acknowledge the consequences of the way we live.

In her most recent collection entitled THE LIBERATION SERIES, Erin pays homage to the spiritual strength of women all over the world. Her subjects fight political injustice and quietly confront gender inequality, Despite significant progress in civil rights, Erin feels that women still do not truly have a voice. Therefore, throughout THE LIBERATION SERIES, the mouths of the women are covered but their eyes are open to reflect their dedication and determination in the face of adversity.

The theme underlying THE LIBERATION SERIES came to Erin when she visited Hyderabad, a predominantly Muslim city in India. While there, she was amazed that, although women were covered from head to toe in burkas, their eyes alone conveyed their personalities directly and powerfully. The women of THE LIBERATION SERIES, including the Muslim women in WIDOWS, speak with a similar spiritual strength that shines brightly through their eyes.

Yet, the Western women in WHITE ZOMBIES do not have their mouths covered like their Eastern counterparts; these women have a voice. But sunglasses shield their eyes, representing their blindness to what Erin calls a "psychological-consumer bondage" cycle. This cycle mentally enslaves women, as they literally buy into the idea that they are physically or emotionally inadequate. The constant stream of advertising in the western world offers multiple prescriptions in daily doses for any perceived imperfection. If a woman's hair is too curly, she can get it straightened. If her skin is too light, there's tan-in-a-can.

In the background of WHITE ZOMBIES, pictures of cookie-cutter body types are pasted one over the other. Erin says women are bombarded daily with such images, dictating narrow beauty standards and creating feelings of inadequacy that perpetuate the vicious psychological-consumer relationship.

The Western women are so blinded by consumerism that they also fail to see the struggles of other women around the world. Having traveled all over the globe, Erin has witnessed how materialism and greed corrupt indigenous cultures. According to Erin, American multinational corporations are especially guilty of marginalizing cultures and destroying the planet. Politics serve only to make the process easier. "Governments are more concerned with profit than with people," Erin states. Erin seeks to raise awareness of the indigenous groups that fight corporate exploitation, sanctioned by the complicit governments of the world's human and natural resources.

For example, ZAPATISTA WOMEN tells of the courage and suffering of the female revolutionaries who fought for indigenous rights in Chiapas. As they stand, prepared to defend their rights, they wear masks made of Calvin Klein and Giorgio Armani products, perhaps symbolic of the exploitation of multinational corporations upon the low-wage workers of the developing world.

Erin emphasizes that corporations ignore humanity in their perpetual quest for profit but governments reinforce the profit-guzzlirg ways of the multinational corporation. Governments open their borders to unrestrained investment in the name of industrial development. She says that the partnership between multinational corporations and governments serves to exploit the people. "How much money can be made at the expense of citizenry?" Erin asks. The governments are increasingly willing to sacrifice autonomy and the welfare of their people for the sake of foreign capital,

For example, during her visit to Beijing in 2000, Erin noticed many people wore face- masks to shield themselves from the city's air pollution. She created WORKERS in 2003, as an expression of her belief the Chinese government is neglecting the health of its own citizens.

Erin points to fast-food giant McDonald's as a good example of how multinational corporations negatively impact the world on many levels. To produce beef necessary to meet our demand for fast food, industrial farmers overgraze their lands and place an unsustainable burden on the water supply, Erin says. The product itself is unhealthy, creating a need for prescription drugs and driving profits in the pharmaceutical industry. And of course, we discard a countless degree of product packaging into landfills, oceans and air.

But rather than merely complain about the waste, Erin uses it in her work. She collects trash from different countries and gives it new life and meaning by incorporating it into her paintings. "I like the idea of using something I would normally throw away and I transform it into something beautiful." Erin also says that it is her way of continuing an native tradition of using nearby tools to create art. She calls trash her indigenous material because it surrounds us.

To create her work, Erin firsts paints the subjects of her painting. She then attaches layers of packaging, newspapers, fast food wrappers and the like. Erin explains that she picks different types of trash based on the colors she needs. She paints and glazes structurally, creating multi-dimensional images that are deeply textured.

Erin's Asian travels inspired her mixed-media technique. There, layers of posters pasted on top of each other covered the walls, with top layers pealing away to reveal papers below, Advertisements revealed propaganda, which revealed additional posters and so forth.

For Erin, the medium is part of the message. By using trash in her work, Erin once communicated a fitting but unintended message through the piece, "Sati". Sati refers to an outlawed ceremonial practice where a Hindu woman will throw herself on her husbands burning funeral pyre, Although banned, the practice still happens occasionally. Zmenu appears prominently in the front of the work. The word means, "change" in Czech. Erin says, that although women have limited rights in India, they are slowly rising up to stimulate social change.

Another aspect to "The Liberation Series" is its Buddhist influence. Erin's trip to Asia inspired her work immensely. "It was after that trip that I was able to bridge my political beliefs with the spiritual," she said. Buddhist deities generally embody a type of wisdom or compassion, which is illustrated by the very specific position of their hands and posture, "I started to look for people in our day and age that embody Buddhist ideals."

Septima Clark, a civil rights activist, is seated in the prajna paramita position. Ms. Clark dedicated her life to education and equality. According to Erin, as a human and civil rights activist, Ms. Clark is an appropriate subject to be depicted as a spiritual icon,

Erin depicts Dr. Daniel Hale Williams as the Medicine Buddha. As the first Doctor to perform open-heart surgery in 1893, Dr Williams holds a special place in history. He holds a heart in one hand and sits on Lotus flowers cut from herbal medicine packaging and muscle rub from Nepal. Looking closely, the hand on the medical packaging is in the same position as Dr. Williams.

Erin's next project promises to be as provoking as THE LIBERATION SERIES. In her upcoming work, Erin will focus on revolutionaries and activists throughout history. Erin will devote consideration to Brazilian women who led a slave uprising over a century ago, as well as to a female Chinese revolutionary who challenged an oppressive regime at the turn of the last century. Through her work, Erin will continue to pay reverence and bring attention to the activists from this century, including Korean women in pursuit of equal rights. To date, Erin has completed paintings featuring fifteen hurnan/civil rights leaders, all of which are women.

Erin Currier's work is on display at TOPS Gallery, 234 10 Civic Center Way, Malibu, California 90265 (310.456.8677).