GROWTH UNDER PRESSURE is an exhibition rooted in the landscape and geology of Salem. Salem’s natural beauty speaks for itself, something that is evident to anyone who hikes up the hill and gazes out over the peaked and rolling green landscape. Fortunately, this beauty is more accessible than ever because Salem Art Works is constructing a road making the hill drivable to all vehicles, an action that had an unpredicted side effect. 

 

The artists in this exhibition found this construction to be fortunate because it showed them the veins of beauty upon which SAW is built. They discovered inspirational shards of rock in the trenches gauged out by bulldozers.  Between shale underfoot and the ever present trees before their eyes, the elements of wood and stone emerged as an opportunity for these artists to come together and find their places in this landscape. 

 

Many of the artists here are about to, or have just recently, graduated college, while others have been variously employed for various amounts of time. In college and high school we are told that if we perform to high standards, pushing ourselves, we will be rewarded. Daily we are asked to take work home with us, work multiple jobs, or rewarded with extra pay for working overtime. In all of these situations we are pressured to do more and do it better. Against the stress and problems of these situations, this group of artists chooses to reclaim pressure as a tool that can be used for inspiration, motivation, and originality. By working with unfamiliar, fragile media, by the constrained amount of time, by functioning as a fluid group, and by physical scale, both large and small, these artists embraced pressure.

 

In contrast to the geological and day-to-day pressures that produced this show is the unintentional, yet strongly present theme of balance.  In fact, perhaps one of the strongest conclusions that can be drawn from this show is that to channel pressure productively requires careful balancing. The vertical strength of a stacked pedestal and the instability of a teetering pile, the springy life of fresh hewn wood and the dead fragility of shale, the art object before you and the failures, mistakes, and accidents that make up its history, these are elements which this group has brought into balance to transform pressure into growth.

 

Geologically, shale is produced by consistent high pressure exerted on clay and quartz particles, resulting in a range of shales from black to red to green and striated with veins of other minerals or coated in iridescent casts. Just as this high pressure creates the stunning stone buried in this hill and composing this exhibition, these artists have shown how the pressure of everyday life can be balanced and channeled into creativity and originality to produce something beautiful.

 

  ~Cha Tori 

      Salem, NY 2014