"New Work by James Allen: War Story: Nuns and Guns, The Elder Series," now on view at the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, is, as the lengthy title suggests, made up of two separate parts, two individual themes. "War Story" has to do with violent conflict, the artist says in his accompanying statement. The "Elder Series" deals with "the stages of life, from youth to old age."
Allen claims that there is nothing didactic about his work. "These works are not about teaching, promoting or criticizing any given ideas," he states.
He says that he was born in 1942 and lived through many armed conflicts, saw uncles return from World War II, remembers the Korean Conflict. As a child, he played the usual war games. He even served two years of non-combat duty during the Vietnam era.
However, there is another side to Allen. He was educated by sisters of St. Mary's School in a small town in Michigan and found them to be "dedicated, prayerful women." He also saw them as "coming as close to supernatural creatures as a boy could imagine."
These two opposite views are presented in a mural-size assemblage constructed of cut-out pieces of canvas mounted on one large wall of the gallery. The piece is dominated by the green of the soldiers' fatigues interspersed with the nuns' blue, white and gray habits. Soldiers are pointing guns in every direction while the nuns are praying. They appear to be stopping the soldiers from shooting. There is horror in the faces of all. It's not a pretty scene. One soldier with hollow eyes and open mouth, as if caught in a scream, has blood covering his face, obscuring his features. Another's head is a death mask, a skeleton.
Perhaps Allen is taking no sides here, not asking anyone to change his or her views. He states that he does not "believe that every evil or perceived threat of evil will submit in the absence of violent action." However, given a choice here, it seems to me that he is on the side of the peacemakers.
An adjoining wall shows four small soldiers with guns pointed, while another soldier lies on the ground. A soldier holds a gun and looks directly out at the viewer. Next to him is a smallish gas pump labeled "Unleaded."
The "Elder Series" is about aging, how at one point in life we all come to realize that we don't live forever.
The paintings are small and intimate, made by pressing forms into wet plaster prior to the actual painting process.
The titles here say it all. "Older Flesh Bruises Easily" is one title. "Vision Dims" shows a man walking down a street, with dim figures in the background. Is this all he sees? "Walking May Be Difficult" features a walker with two feet near it. "How Can They Know Me?" is the most poignant of all. It shows a grandmother sitting in a chair, her sparse gray hair pulled back, while adult hands push unwilling young children toward her.
Both parts of the exhibit ask viewers to consider something and easily engage their interests.
"New Works by James Allen" continues at the Castellani Art Museum through Jan. 5. Museum hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, 2 to 5 p.m.
For more information, call 286-8200 or visit www.niagara.edu/cam.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | November 5 2002 |