By Amy Kepferle, via cascadiaweekly.com
If Sister Gertrude Morgan were still alive, there’s a good chance she’d be willing to hook up with contemporary artist Lesley Dill to talk about her strong beliefs.
On the surface, the two women are nothing alike: One was an African American self-taught preacher and artist who, at the not-so-tender age of 38, ditched her husband and family and moved to the “headquarters of sin,” New Orleans, to spread the word of God. The other is a blond, Bronx-born city girl who uses both sculpture and language—among other medias—to convey her unique world view.
The similarities are there, however, if you dig just a little deeper into the individual talents of the two women. Both have used, to great effect, words and art to get across their beliefs—and their many visions.
This is made abundantly clear at the Whatcom Museum’s current Lightcatcher exhibit, “Lesley Dill’s Poetic Visions,” which includes a mind-bending, room-long wire sculpture dubbed “Shimmer” and an immense installation, “Hell Hell Hell, Heaven Heaven Heaven: Encountering Sister Gertrude Morgan and Revelation.”
“When the words of New England poet Emily Dickinson and the life of New Orleans folk artist and self-styled preacher Sister Gertrude Morgan come together with two million feet of fine wire, the Hindu-inspired ‘tongue of God,’ a few mystical meditations and a couple of lavish ball gowns in one light-filled space, it’s worth a look,” reads an explanatory story about the exhibit in the Whatcom Museum’s fall catalogue.
And they’re right—it is worth a first, and second, look. But rather than simply requiring viewers to peruse singular works of art one at a time on a wall, the exhibit challenges them to not only focus on the individual creations contained within the confines of the museum’s walls, but also approach the exhibit as a whole.
Curator Barbara Matilsky, who worked alongside Dill to transform the Lightcatcher into a surreal space full of hidden meanings, explains that the installation is ultimately about “faith and healing.”
These themes figure even more strongly when you’re talking about Sister Morgan, a woman who, upon hearing the voice of God urging her to become a street evangelist, put her faith in her future and gave up on the idea of a marriage between a man and a woman in order to become a “bride of Christ.”
Dill uses Morgan’s own words to great effect in the installation, varying between further themes of light (heaven) and darkness (hell) and creating an artistic swath that manages to encompass a broad spectrum of emotions and events.
Viewers who read the fine print will discover Sister Gertrude Morgan never took credit for any art she created, saying “Dada Jesus” was the one who moved her hand (and also the one who eventually told her to stop painting).
But it’s also worth your time to stick around and find out what motivates Lesley Dill to do what she does. The answer—which is both in her art and on the short documentary playing continuously during the exhibit—might surprise you.