WOrCesTer ArT Museu / 55 salisbury street / worcester, ma 01609wed-sun 11-5, third thu 11- 8, sat. 10-5 / 508.799.4406 / www.worcesterart.org

This project is supported by the Don and Mary Melville Contemporary Art Fund.

Additional generous support provided by David and Marlene Persky, an anonymous donor, and Worcester Magazine.

Wall at WAM

THESE DAYS OF MAIUMARobert & Shana ParkeHarrison

WOrCesTer ArT MuseuM / worcesterart.org

Wall at WAM: These Days of Maiuma, 2013, inkjet, 17 x 67 feet. Courtesy of the artists. Photo credit: stephen briggs

On vieW beginning MArCh 2013

Wall at WAM: These Days of Maiuma (detail), 2013, inkjet, 17 x 67 feet. Courtesy of the artists.

Wall at WAMTHESE DAYS OF MAIUMARobert & Shana ParkeHarrison

STEPHEN

BRIG

GS

ACKnOWLeDgMenTs

special thanks to robert smith, Jr. of s&rWallcovering Company; Patrick brown, exhibitionDesigner & Chief Preparator; and Kim noonan,Manager of Publications and graphic Design.

We work from our shared vision and lovefor art. We have a great amount of trustand respect for one another’s diverseartistic visions. Our collaborative processis similar to a game of throwing a ballback and forth. in our collaborative game,we start throwing the ball far from eachother and progressively get closer andcloser until we meet in middle.”1

in their critically acclaimed series, TheArchitect’s Brother (1993-2005), theParkeharrisons worked with paper nega-tives to create sepia-toned images of an“everyman” (robert) tending to a woundedlandscape which raised questions aboutthe earth’s vulnerabilities. The end of thatproject spawned two years of experimen-tation and resulted in a body of colorphotographs that displayed a greaterdegree of narrative ambiguity and adramatic shift in palette. The Parke-harrisons brought to this new work a deepunderstanding of the painter’s relation tocolor—as a signifier of both “conceptualand compositional intent”—as well as adesire for color to evoke a sense of“magical realism.”2

Their concept for the Wall at WAM was “tocreate a continuous detailed tableauphotograph for the mural site. Creating aphotograph at this immense scalepresented far more of a challenge than wehad imagined. in our studio, wephotographed the elaborate image usingmultiple negatives that were scanned andmerged together to retain the overall detailand resolution for this image…The otherchallenge was creating a photograph thatoffers a provocative and intriguing experi-ence for viewers over the duration [typi-cally two years] of its installation.”3

These Days of Maiuma, with its iconog-raphy of the remains of a grand feast andits themes of contemporary wealth, deca-dence, and disregard for the environment isintended to be a visual and conceptualcounterpoint to the Worcester Hunt mosaicfrom 6th-century Antioch (present day

Antakya in southeastern Turkey). This floormosaic, which is installed beneath themural, was once the setting of luxuriousprivate dining by Antiochenes in an ancientcity known for its lifestyle of sophistication,affluence, and excess.

The Parkeharrisons introduced the iconog-raphy of the feast and its aftermath in anearlier photograph, After the Feast (2008).About that image the Parkeharrisons said,“We were inspired by an early Petergreenaway film—The Cook, The Thief, HisWife & Her Lover (1989). Throughout thefilm, color is a dominant and expressivevehicle, from the interior walls to thelighting and costumes. in our feast imagewe wanted to portray a moment after agluttonous feast. We chose highly satu-rated red walls and overly abundant colorfound in all of the foods piled onto the headof this person.”4 The Wall at WAM site’sproximity to the Hunt mosaic led them to amulti-layered engagement with the theme.

As the Parkeharrisons explain,“researching the symbolism, history, andculture of Antioch offered intriguing contentto our creative process. The brutalitydisplayed in the Worcester Hunt becamefertile ground for us to explore the crueltyand gluttony of the time in which the mosaicwas created. The concept for our muraloffers a window into contemporary issues ofuse and misuse by referencing the past.The central figure of the Worcester Huntstands awkwardly yet casually as a sceneof animal brutality is enacted around him.This character is referenced in our image bya man holding a slain deer. in our image itis unclear if his action is aggressive orsympathetic. Clearly the feast in our imagereferences decadence, both past andpresent. We titled our piece, These Days ofMaiuma. Maiuma was a religious festival inthe ancient world. in Antioch, it became areason for parties which lasted between fiveand thirty days. This observance evolvedinto such a corrupt and decadent display ofall forms of excess that it was periodicallyoutlawed or tempered. This festival of

excess seems aligned with the excessesvisible in the mosaic and in the lifestyles ofancient Antioch.”5

The Hunt mosaic and These Days ofMaiuma, although separated in time by 15centuries, are both characterized by acomplex embrace of the real and the imag-ined. Together, they afford us compellingvisualizations of humans’ complex relationsto their world, then and now. The prosperitythat once defined Antioch, so evident in theHunt mosaic’s unambiguous message ofthe success and wealth of its owner to hisdinner guests and in its display of man’sdominance over nature (in the forms ofslain animals), would not last beyond the6th century when the city fell victim todevastation by war, plague, drought, andearthquakes.

in the Parkeharrisons’ imagination, themosaic floor is the setting of a more recentfeast, as well as its aftermath. evidence of abountiful spread depicted in These Days ofMaiuma, seemingly endless, is madeexplicit through finely articulated and richlycolored details (products typical of theregion of Antioch including pomegranates,olives, fish, lemons, roses, and wine). by

contrast, the narrative unfolding across theblood-spattered floor is purposefullyprovocative and disorienting. About thosewhom we see—a female tethered by herpearls to a peacock, a male carrying abloodied stag, a moth hovering in a glass—and their relations to one another, there isnothing certain other than the palpablepresence of their mortality.

susan L. stoopsCurator of Contemporary Art

nOTes

Unless otherwise noted, information from the artists isdrawn from conversations with the author over thecourse of the project (September 2011-March 2013).

1. robert and shana Parkeharrison interviewed bysusan stoops, Access (Worcester Art Museum,summer 2013), 11.2. The Parkeharrisons sometimes enhance the film’scolor by applying layers of acrylic paint by hand to thephotographic surface. Among painters they have citedwhose use of color was particularly influential are thePre-raphaelites as well as ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Markrothko, and Cy Twombly. see Carol McCusker,“FuTure imPerFeCT,” Color Magazine, 2009.3. Parkeharrisons in Access, 11.4. Parkeharrisons in Color Magazine.5. Parkeharrisons in Access, 11.

AbOuT The ArTisTs

robert Parkeharrison (born 1968, Ft.Leonard Wood, Missouri) studied photog-raphy at the Kansas City Art institute andthe university of new Mexico; shanaParkeharrison (born 1964, Tulsa,Oklahoma) studied painting at WilliamWoods College and went on to studydance history and metalsmithing at theuniversity of new Mexico. They havedeveloped their collaboration over the pasttwo decades and in 2000 publicly acknowl-edged co-authorship of their images. Atraveling exhibition of The Architect’sBrother toured from 2002-2008 to sites inthe united states, Canada, and europe.

recent solo museum exhibitions includedthe nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, KansasCity and the gallery of Photography,Dublin. The Parkeharrisons’ work is innumerous private and public collectionsincluding Los Angeles County Museum ofArt; Whitney Museum of Art; Museum ofFine Arts houston; san Francisco Museumof Modern Art; The Art institute of Chicago;the international Museum of Photographyat george eastman house, and theWorcester Art Museum. robert and shanaParkeharrison live and work in saratogasprings, new York. They are representedby Catherine edelman gallery, Chicago.

The collaborative husband and wife team ofRobert and Shana ParkeHarrison werecommissioned to create the 10th mural forthe Worcester Art Museum’s Wall at WAMseries. The mural is installed on a second-story, 67-foot expanse situated in the mostpublic of the Museum’s galleries – a fauxRenaissance-style court – and overlookinga 6th-century Roman mosaic.

Over the past two decades, theParkeharrisons’ staged photography hasinvolved performance, sculptural props, anddigital technology and often has raisedquestions about the politics of naturalresources, the polarizing distribution ofwealth, and the inherent contradictionsbetween human activity, responsibility, and

destiny. Their collaboration began whileboth were studying at the university of newMexico (1990-94). And while photographyhas remained at the heart of their practice,they regularly acknowledge the influencesof other media including painting, literature,dance, theatre, and film.

The Parkeharrisons’ process of staging ascene and building a composite image frommultiple negatives has affinities to cinema;their sensitivity to the expressive role ofcolor has parallels throughout the history ofpainting. As they describe it, an initialconcept evolves into narrative-chargedimagery through lengthy phases of drawing,writing, research, and conversation.“Collaboration is an organic process for us.

Worcester Hunt, early 6th century, mosaic, 20.5 x 23.5 feet, Worcester Art Museum, 1936.30. excavation of Antioch and vicinity funded by the bequests of the reverend Dr. Austin s. garver and sarah C. garver.

robert and shana Parkeharrison, March 2013

TIM

OTHY

FURMAN