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Only this astronaut is wearing a suit and holding a briefcase. And the title, Bull Market, has nothing to do with space exploration. And one of his gloved hands looks as if it’s reaching for a handshake. So what’s this guy selling?
The astronaut is the creation of H. Seano Whitecloud, who created the figure not long after the world financial markets imploded in 2008. Whitecloud, who lives in Fairlee, is also exhibiting photographs, sculpture, painting and other conceptual pieces of clothing.
The interpretation is in the eye of the beholder, of course, but Whitecloud does think about bubbles, and which bubble we happen to inhabit, and how you break through your bubble. And if you worked in the stock market prior to the collapse, there was a disconnect between the risky financial maneuvers and the people whom they affected.
If the phrase “theoretical clothing” sounds like an oxymoron, bringing the conceptual together with the actual seems to be part of Whitecloud’s aesthetic.
Take the sculpture titled Long Suit. A man’s suit jacket and trousers, in the plainest of grays, is displayed, but with a critical difference. The sleeves and pant legs look never-ending. Each sleeve is so long that it is folded back and forth on itself many times over, and the trouser leg extends many feet over the floor.
If you wore it, Whitecloud said, you’d look clownish. But, wearable clothing isn’t really the point.
“I don’t know how far they spread; I don’t know how far they reach. It’s an infinite length and it’s an indefinite length,” he said.
Whitecloud calls himself a polyglot, and speaks in abstractions that twist and turn and fold in on themselves; sometimes you have to follow the thread all the way to the end to see what he’s getting at.
He said he’d spoken with a physicist about how time and gravity function at the edge of the universe, and the physicist’s answer was that no one really knows how they work. It’s in such ambiguities and unknowns that Whitecloud seems to like to work.
“How do we see ourselves?” he asked. “I’m trying to talk about our impact, our selves in a real abstract way.”
Clothes don’t begin or end at a cuff, a lapel or a hem: they reverberate into the world, and tell others how we see ourselves.
“Ideas express themselves in a certain way,” he said.
Imagine an octopus wearing a sweater with sleeves for each tentacle, and you’ll see how Whitecloud used a multi-armed sweater to get across the idea of kinetic movement.
Whitecloud bought a number of striped sweaters from one of the Listen Community Services stores, cut off their sleeves and sewed them back onto one sweater. He was trying to get across the idea of movement, of all the things our arms do during the day, as if we were looking at the sweater waving its arms in a stop-motion film sequence. Which brings us back to another of Whitecloud’s musings.
“I think creation is like a liquid, it’s not a solid,” he said.
Whitecloud will give a gallery talk at 2 p.m. on Sunday. His designs will be part of New Hampshire Fashion Week at the Radisson in Nashua on April 8 and 9. And on April 22, he, along with other designers, will show his clothes as part of WRJ Fashion Weekend at the Engine Room in White River Junction.
The show at Main Street Museum continues through April 22.
Openings and Receptions
Lyme artist and printer Matt Brown will exhibit his work in “Woodblock Prints: Parts and Process” in the Betty Grant Gallery of Lyme’s Converse Free Library. Using a 19th- and early 20th-century Japanese style, Brown makes prints of the New England landscape. There will be a reception Wednesday evening from 5:30 to 7. The show continues through May 31.
The Philip Read Memorial Library in Plainfield is exhibiting prints by Barnard artist Sabra Field that come from a local resident’s collection. The show continues through July 1.
The Osher at Dartmouth office in Hanover holds a reception this afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. for Lyme artist and illustrator Meg McLean, who is exhibiting her oil paintings in the show “Still Seeing Green” at the Osher at Dartmouth office, 7 Lebanon Street, Hanover. Office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:30 to 4:30 p.m., Fridays from 8:30 to 1 p.m. The show runs through April 27.
Ongoing
Arabella, Windsor. The gallery exhibits works by local artists and artisans in a variety of media, including jewelry, oils, acrylics, photography, watercolors, pastels and textiles.
AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon. The preview exhibition of the Silent Auction continues until Saturday, with hours daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Today, however, the gallery will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. The auction kicks off on Saturday at 5 p.m. and runs until 8 p.m. The preview is free and open to the public, but there is a fee to attend Saturday’s Silent Auction Party: $25 for members and $35 for non-members, in advance, or $50 at the door, as space allows. The gallery is also exhibiting vintage posters from the collection of Alfred J. Quirk in the second floor library.
Baker-Berry Library, Dartmouth College, Hanover. “Tibetan and Himalayan Lifeworlds” ends Friday.
Center for the Arts, New London. The center shows work by Penny Koburger at the New London Inn, and pastels and oils by Gwen Nagel at the Lake Sunapee Bank on Main Street. In celebration of Youth Art Month, work by students from New London Elementary School also is on view at the Whipple Gallery in New London. All three shows end April 29.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon. The winter exhibitions include stained glass by Kathleen Curwen; wildlife paintings by Bradley Jackson; watercolors by Kathleen Fiske; a selection of work from the Vermont Watercolor Society; photographs by Seth Goodwin; pen and ink drawings by David Cooper; and photographs by Ruth Connor, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the Geisel School of Medicine, who spent time in Western Kenya documenting the work done by I-Kodi, a grassroots non-governmental organization dedicated to improving education and healthcare in the region. The shows end Friday.
Hood Downtown, Hanover. “Ingo Gunther: World Processor,” an arrangement of 50 illuminated globes, runs through May 28.
Hopkins Center, Hanover. In conjunction with the exhibition at Hood Downtown, the Strauss Gallery exhibits two works by San Francisco-based artist Amy Balkin and Mexican artist Luis Delgado-Qualtrough. The exhibition continues through April 30.
Howe Library, Hanover. Boston artist Tatiana Yanovskaya-Sink, who also spends time in the summer in the Sunapee area, exhibits paintings in the library’s Ledyard Gallery through May 3.
Kilton Library, West Lebanon. A selection of work from Hanover Street School and Mount Lebanon School will be exhibited at the library: Hanover Street students show their art through Wednesday; Mount Lebanon students’ work will be on view April 6 through May.
Long River Gallery and Gifts. “As If — Weavings From Oz,” by Henniker, N.H., artist Doug Masury, continues at the Long River store in White River Junction. An exhibition of paintings by Stephanie Reininger at Long River Gallery and Gifts ends Friday.
Royalton Memorial Library, South Royalton. A show of work by South Royalton School students continues through April 14. There will be a public reception today from 4 to 6 p.m.
Scavenger Gallery, White River Junction. After a brief hiatus, the gallery is open again with the jewelry of Stacy Hopkins on view. Also for sale: wines from boutique vineyards in Italy and France.
SculptureFest, Woodstock. The annual celebration of three-dimensional art generally ends when foliage season does, but 80 percent of the show is still on view. “Grounding,” a show of site-specific work curated by sculptors Jay Mead and Edythe Wright, is on view at the King Farm. For more information, go to sculpturefest.org.
Two Rivers Printmaking Studio, White River Junction. An exhibition of prints by Sheri Tomek concludes Friday.
White River Gallery at BALE, South Royalton. “Expansions,” a show of paintings by Jasper Tomkins, is on view through April 30.
Zollikofer Gallery, Hotel Coolidge, White River Junction. “The Spirit of Odanaksis,” an exhibition of work by members of a group Upper Valley plein air painters, is on view through May 10.
Nicola Smith can be reached at nsmith@vnews.com.