THE IDEA OF DEATH IS TORMENTING ME: Lara Allen, Stacy Fisher, Ann Toebbe
February 10, 2006 — March 12, 2006
Lara Allen sings ragtime.
Stacy Fisher ties a perfect bow.
Ann Toebbe sits and stares out the window.
Brooklyn Fire Proof is pleased to present The Idea of Death is Tormenting Me, an exhibition of work curated by Ann Toebbe about three women who have found themselves courted by death in the dark depths of their imaginations.
Lara Allen’s work possesses the nocturnal urges and terrors that masquerade as religious fundamentalism, covering doors and walls with drawings of burning buildings, whirling smoke plumes and spinning nightingales. Allen’s images draw upon the Christian and pagan symbolism that filled her childhood, probing for that crux of belief where the preaching of what is good awakens a curiosity—or perhaps a desire—for what is evil.
Stacy Fisher’s handmade sculptures playfully blend icons of life and death, nature and mythology in search of new hybrids, things that feel both familiar and impossible for reasons we cannot quite place. For Fisher, the act of object making is an indulgence that enables us to pay particular and methodical attention to what shapes we perceive and ignore, what materials we re-use or waste, what we keep and remember and what we just throw away.
Ann Toebbe’s paintings fixate on the repetitious banality of middle class life as manifested in the furniture arrangements, holiday decorations, and mealtime detritus of the places she has called home. Through the use of repetition, she focuses on the objects present in a remembered moment, using the process of painting to embalm her own memories in silence and darkness.
Gallery hours are Saturday and Sunday, 12 – 6 pm or during the week by appointment. For inquiries, please contact Jessica Lin Cox at 718 302 4702 or at jessica@brooklynfireproof.com.