Human Threads features new work revealing Jacqueline Bishop’s continue to explore landscape issues, through the long tradition of landscape painting and the narrative. Included in her eighth exhibition with the gallery are oil paintings on vintage cotton baby dresses, Belgian linen, and paper as well as monoprints and watercolor on paper.
Bishop’s ongoing interest in the politics behind landscape painting introduced her to eco-political injustice and anthropocentric practice. Utilizing vintage baby dresses made from cotton presents the connection between human and non-human that addresses historical, political, ecological landscape issues because of the forced labor behind the cotton crop from seed to product. The rich history of natural fibers goes back to early Egyptians when they buried their dead in linen. These discarded garments are meant to give voice to the “tiny” in the landscape.
Bishop’s piece Ginkgo, 2009 is inspired by the delicate Ginkgo tree which predates humanity and was the only tree species that survived Hiroshima. Images of songbirds in Facing Earth remind us that birds are informative about our environment because they are widespread and travel the earth. Made in America addresses the connections between globalization and landscape destruction for commerce. Homage to Rachel Ruysch celebrates the 17th-century Dutch painter who was known for her flower, fruit and insect subject matter at a time when women were not allowed to paint. Her thinly applied layers of paint on Belgian linen of flora had subtle political connotations mirroring her environment. Necklace presents the idea that culture comes from the land. The vintage rosary represents Mardi Gras beads caught in the trees of New Orleans as they float away from our disappearing Louisiana landscape
Jacqueline Bishop received her B.A. from the University of New Orleans and an M.F.A. from Tulane University. She has been Adjunct Professor for Art and the Environment at Tulane and Loyola Universities. She is the author of Chico Mendes: Em Memoria: A Tribute on the 10–Year Anniversary of His Death (Lavender Ink, 1998); a collection of 10 years of paintings and testimonials about the Brazilian rubber tapper slain by wealthy cattle ranchers. She has exhibited or lectured in Europe, Asia, South America, Canada, and the United States. In 2007 she received a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and in 2006 both a Joan Mitchell and a Warhol Foundation Grant. Jacqueline Bishop is included in A Unique Slant of Light: the Bicentennial History of Art in Louisiana (University Press of Mississippi, 2012).
