The Norwalk Art Space Unveils “The Meaning of Us” Exhibit
"The Meaning of Us" will be on display at The Norwalk Art Space until June 1.
This piece is published in partnership with The Norwalk Art Space. Learn more about our partnerships.
Tying the past to the present and the future. That’s one of the things artist Greg Aimé has worked to do with his latest pieces for The Norwalk Art Space’s new exhibit, “The Meaning of Us.”
“All of these pieces that I’m showing are a continuation of my older pieces—I wanted to extend their environment,” he said. “And all of my artwork is black-centric, black-focused. I like to have unapologetically black artwork, but also [artwork] showing our humanity, showing the expanse of where we live, our culture, and I’m a very spiritual person, and so a lot of my artwork, there’s a spirituality, tapping into our ancestors.”
For example, in one of Aimé’s pairings, he used a photo he took of one of his friends, who was celebrating her pregnancy. It’s a striking photo, with her glowing in a yellow dress against a backdrop that he created, featuring blue and green water.
Next to this photo, is a piece Aimé did, inspired by the Igbo Landing, where a group of about 75 people who were sold into slavery from Africa rose up against their enslavers and after taking over the ship, many of them jumped over board to avoid a life of enslavement.
“They literally walked into the water with their children, because they believed the spirits would have brought them back to Africa through the water, because water is a portal,” he said.
Between the two, Aimé included visuals connecting them.
“Here is a mother sacrificing her life in a sense to not be enslaved,” he said. “And here you have the spirits arriving, and celebrating the birth,” he said.
But that’s not all—viewers can also immerse themselves even deeper into the photo by scanning a QR code that brings them to an augmented reality, where they can see video from the shoot over the piece of art.
@coastalconnecticuttimes Take an inside look into the latest exhibit from @thenorwalkartspace “The Meaning of Us,” now on display! #norwalkct #fairfieldcounty #norwalkarts #fairfieldcountyarts #connecticut
♬ Forever - Labrinth
Aimé was one of three resident artists in this year’s class at the art space, and all of their work was featured in the exhibit. According to The Norwalk Art Space, resident artists are “hand-picked following a rigorous selection process,” and are residents for a year, which includes “a free studio, exhibition space in our cafe, and an opportunity to participate in all of our programs.”
Tiara Trent, another resident artist, said that she really tried to capture some of the “deeper emotional experiences,” that she’s had in her work.
“So it’s very back and forth—you see a lot of lighter vibes, and then you see lower vibes—I just have this need to express, because I’m not one to talk about my emotions, so I need to find an outlet for that, and so that’s what I tried to do here. Sometimes reality can be so mundane or broken, and so I kind of need to find a way to go to my own little world.”
Trent also tried to showcase her appreciation and connection to a higher power, which comes across in one of her pieces, “Raised to Life," which features an engraved wooden block meant seem historic and connected to the past.
For Lily Morgan, the exhibit was a chance to showcase some of the brighter, more fun sides of life.
“I feel like the thing that’s most important in my work is just the idea of play,” she said. “So much at the beginning of pieces is just getting color and vibrance and all of the tangle of life onto a canvas in color, and then I just kind of tighten things up from there.”
Some of Morgan’s pieces feature a man intently organizing little green soldiers while a toy dinosaur looks on or a man laying down with small dino pieces all around him.
“I feel like I take joy in taking something very silly and almost borderline tacky, and then rendering in a way that is too serious,” she said. “And there is some fun in that.”
All of the artists said that being residents in the program allowed them to connect with and build community.
“I like to be here at the Art Space,” Morgan said. “This is the most magical place in all the land. And then getting to be a part of this community—I’ve been working as an artist on an island and now I have all of these people that I get to call friends and mentors.”
The Meaning of Us will be on display at The Norwalk Art Space until June 1. Learn more at thenorwalkartspace.org.
