RSM Art Gallery

vōtīvus (Latin)
_{1.  Desired, longed or wished for} 
 

Since 2017, over 500 votives have been made by the artist, her friends, students and visitors to her exhibits and workshops  - an ongoing collection of worry, hope , grief, and petition. Drawing upon the practices of the ancient Greek Asklepion temples, where, for over a millennium, healing was sought by offering small sculptures of body parts which represented afflictions. In the current exhibition, votive making is extended into botanical forms in recognition of the desire to honor and assist dying forests and species. Displayed on a totemic sculpture made from cross sections she and her family cut from branches of a once majestic dead Eastern White Pine at their family home in NH, the votives rest on this salvaged wood, itself a record of time, weather and resilience.   

For over 25 years Gallagher has worked at the intersection of spirituality and material exploration. In this exhibition of interrelated objects and images, we find an intimate engagement with  loss and transformation through a variety of media. Tears collected from friends are put under a microscope and printed, revealing the intricate molecular wonder of grief. Videos of herself crying during a bout with depression are woven together with flower photos she has collected  on her phone, and projected onto a pillowcase full of salt.

Along the north wall of the gallery, a 26 foot long digital landscape collage of Gallagher’s ink drawings  is populated by visions of unseen allies like the Buddha and animal totems alongside depictions of  diseased trees and threatened plant species. Much like a Chinese landscape painting, the mural situates the interior life of the artist in nature – not, here, an idealized nature as sanctuary from the chaos of human reality, but in the sad and wild beauty of the endangered forests of now, where millions of ash trees on the East Coast are already standing dead. 

What do we do when the site of play and healing is now itself a hospice? Gallagher’s work does not offer an answer, but an invitation: we bear witness, we make things together, and in doing so, we find the possibility of meaningful connection.

Votive Making Workshop
April 15, 2:00-3:20 pm | Library 101 (Beit Room)

Mixed media artist Sheila Gallagher will host a votives making workshop in conjunction with the exhibition “Vōtīvus”. A tradition going back to ancient Greek sanctuaries, votives are small objects that are made in petition or gratitude for healing.  In this workshop we will make anatomical and botanical votives out of clay that symbolize our vows, wishes, or thanks for alleviating dis-ease or hurt whether that be physical, emotional, or ecological. The votives that are made will become part of the exhibition, joining an ongoing collection of art objects that represent our individual and collectives desire for connection, recovery, and co-creation. 

Trees and Tears - Performed lecture 
April 22, 2:00- 3:15 p.m. | Library Room 11 (Research Instruction Center) POSTPONED UNTIL FALL 2025

Trees tell stories of hurt and healing. From historical wounds of deforestation to contemporary tree dieback from diseases and environmental stressors, trees have carried scars of deep loss while also hosting hopes of healing and recovery. Through words and moving image projections, artist Sheila Gallagher and philosopher Richard Kearney respond to the vital ecological cycle of pain and promise in a unique mixed media performed lecture which draws from a wide variety of sources from Celtic mythology to the latest Forest Service research.

Sheila Gallagher is an interdisciplinary artist and curator whose work explores perception, belief, and different modes of representation. A hybrid practitioner known for her inventive exploration of materials, she works in many media including video, smoke, drawing, animation, live flowers, and light projections. She has had numerous solo exhibitions, and has exhibited widely in galleries, museums, and universities in the U.S. and internationally, including the Moving Image Festival, London; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston; The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR; and the Dodge Gallery in New York City. She is the coauthor of First Hand and co-curator of the Becker Collection, a private archive of Civil War drawings that is currently touring the United States (2012-¬2016). Together with Richard Kearney she co-directs the Guestbook Project , an international peace-building initiative which brings together youths in divided communities to exchange stories. Gallagher is an Associate Professor of Fine Arts at Boston College where she teaches contemporary art practice. She lives and works in Jamaica Plain, MA.

Richard Kearney holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College and has served as a Visiting Professor at University College Dublin, the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and the University of Nice. He is the author of over 26 books on European philosophy and literature (including three novels and a volume of poetry) and has edited or co-edited 23 more. He was formerly a member of the Arts Council of Ireland, the Higher Education Authority of Ireland and chairman of the Irish School of Film at University College Dublin. As a public intellectual he presented numerous series on culture and philosophy for Irish and British television and broadcast extensively on the European and international media (France Culture, ABC, CBC, etc.). He is currently the international director of the Guestbook Project--Hosting the Stranger: Between Hostility and Hospitality.