"Hidden By the Weight of Our Scales" at Marie's North Street Eatery and Gallery

For the month of September, Marie's North Street Eatery and Gallery, 146 North Street, will feature a multi-media piece entitled TEMPEST containing the exhibit "Hidden By the Weight of Our Scales". Hidden By the Weight of Our Scales attempts to provide moments to explore the subtlety of the human emotional landscape through illustrations by Antoine Adams. The exhibit will be on view on Friday, September 6 during the First Fridays Artswalk.

TEMPEST

… containing the exhibit

Hidden By the Weight of Our Scales

Concept: Neil Davis

Dragon Design: Camry Hoyt

Dragon Fabrication/Installation: Neil Davis

Artwork Presentation/Picture Frame Fabrication: Neil Davis

Artwork: Antoine Adams

The idea for Tempest, the blue Dragon, was born from a simple question arising from discussions about our gallery’s magnetic wall system for hanging art. Why does artwork so frequently have to conform to the rectangular sides of a frame? Why doesn’t the frame conform to the art? This was the start of a thought process that led to an enormous 40-foot dragon showcasing our very large main gallery wall.

The exhibit Hidden By the Weight of Our Scales was actually inspired by clickbait … following a link about research on the number of basic human emotions. Science has been at odds with itself for decades as to how many there are, usually determined to be between six and nine. But a UC Berkeley study in 2017 revealed 27 actual distinct emotions. It said these emotions are admiration, adoration, aesthetic appreciation, amusement, anxiety, awe, awkwardness, boredom, calmness, confusion, craving, disgust, empathetic pain, entrancement, envy, excitement, fear, horror, interest, joy, nostalgia, romance, sadness, satisfaction, sexual desire, sympathy, and triumph.

The search was on for artists who could fill Tempest with their personal renderings of some of these emotions. After striking out on a number of fronts, we struck gold and found a friend of a friend right in our midst, master illustrator Antoine Adams, who took on the incredibly challenging task of doing all 27 himself.

Hidden By the Weight of Our Scales attempts to provide moments to explore the subtlety of the human emotional landscape. We frequently hide our emotions behind armor, like scales, which weigh us down when suppressed and not expressed.

By their nature, emotions are subjective. However, by spending a little time with these drawings, the subtlety and nuance of feelings will hopefully flow from the work, and the observer can potentially gain clarity and empathy for others, which encourages us to be curious instead of judgmental.