More than 270 Shaker art objects—furniture, drawings, household objects, textiles, baskets and kitchen implements–debut at Nashville's Frist Center for the Visual Arts Friday, May 20. "Gather Up the Fragments" focuses upon the collection of Faith and Edward Deming Andrews, who from the 1920s through the 1960s formed a large and important assemblage of Shaker art and pioneered Shaker studies. This comprehensive exhibition will provide insight into this intriguing religious group that valued many ideas that resonate today such as equality, pacifism, communal living, sustainability, responsible land stewardship, innovation, simplicity, and high-quality work.
Many of my inherited family furniture embodies Shaker simplicity, including some early American pieces and also several pieces designed by my deceased mother who commissioned them made out of 100-plus year-old family barn wood. During college, my middle sister and her husband lived in Lexington, Ken. Several trips there and since then, with various members of my evolving family, included central Kentucky's "Bluegrass Loop," which encompasses the nearby Pleasant Hill, the nation's largest restored "Shaker Village."
Except the bit about no sex, I love Shaker art and culture. You?
Can’t recall why I missed the media tour of this exhibit, but I promoted it anyway so that others would know about it and because I have an affinity for Shaker furniture and art. I HAVE SINCE visited the exhibited, yet only briefly. I ran up after the media tour for the Warhol exhibit (http://leisahammett.typepad.com/the_journey_with_grace/2011/06/wacky-warhol-to-rock-the-frist.html). I was SHOCKED upon stepping into the exhibit….Yes, once upon a time I thought the theory that things hold energy was wacky. That was 20 years ago and many experiences and evolution in my own beliefs since….I don’t go around sensing energy consciously…though I believe all of us do subconciously. (Do we get a good vibe from this person…? Etc.) The first time I recall sensing the deep, peaceful energy of wood, I had walked into a friend’s family home. His parents were deceased, his four brothers and sisters, like him, grown. But, oh, the energy of that old family home. The old wood floors. And then I recall that about my aunt’s first antique shop. Trees are living and I believe they hold that energy after they are cut. And somehow, old furniture, often, to me, holds a warm, special energy. And maybe there was also an extra spiritual energy in this exhibit–of the people who committed themselves to the aesthetics and their faith in the Divine….Whatever, I felt it a big shock of peaceful love to my heart chakra. Nice.
These Shaker art objects remind me of the not-so-distant past. My mom used to gushed about the beauty of old furniture and could not understand why her children would prefer modern ones. It must be the generation gap, but we, her children, admire her knowledge and appreciate the time she spent on explaining to us the beauty of the presence of an old furniture in our ancestral home.