This week at ROOTED: 1,659 and Pauline Lim Exhibits

On August 3, 2021, in Latest News, by The Somerville Times

1,659, welded stainless steel, donated and salvaged cutlery, 2021

This week at ROOTED features the new 1,659 and Pauline Lim exhibits on the front lawn and in the ROOTED Cafe, 191 Highland Ave.

Northeastern Professor Rahul Bhargava and Somerville artist Emily Bhargava, Director of Connection Lab and Community Art Director for the Beautiful Stuff Project, have created a data sculpture of a full-sized table, made of 1,659 stainless steel utensils. Displayed in front of the Armory until August 5, it is meant to show the scale of hunger in the state and how sharply it has increased during the pandemic. Their hope is that the sculpture will expose the impact of Covid-19 on food insecurity in Massachusetts, and connect viewers with food resources and ways to get involved.

The pandemic has affected so many aspects of our lives, amplifying disparities and challenges that already existed. For far too many households simply having access to enough food to eat is a daily challenge. During the early months of the COVID pandemic, an average of 1,659 new households applied for SNAP benefits every DAY in Massachusetts. The sculpture is inspired by that number – each of the 1,659 households is represented by one knife, spoon, or fork. The pandemic is slowing here, but these families and others facing food insecurity still struggle to put food on their tables.

Learn about local resources if you are in need, or ways you can help, at their website here.

Pauline Lim at the ROOTED Cafe until August 29!

Read her artist statement below:

“Libera Nos, Salva Nos (Free Us, Save Us)”, 2020. Acrylic, glass beads, mosaic on panel, 27″x32″

“I am a fear-driven person. I am always freaking out about the fact that we all have to die, so a lot of my paintings have to do with the frustration of being trapped in a mortal existence. The increasing aches and pains of aging underscore this dilemma to me every day, and make me seek out color and beauty, as well as the relief of laughter alongside the recognition of despair.

“Lately I have been obsessed with Old Master paintings, so I’ll start on a painting with the intention of emulating Holbein or Vermeer, but then I get dissatisfied with the overall effect – ‘this looks like bad hotel art!’— and start adding three-dimensional items to the surface. Mosaic techniques satisfy my compulsion to always be busy. I try to pick activities that are fun, restful or refreshing, and that also satisfy my need to always be productive. I’m sure it comes from my driven, expectation-laden upbringing. Being Korean, my parents wanted me to be a Nobel-Prize-winning doctor. I graduated from Harvard, where I majored in studio art, so I’ve always felt sheepish that I wasn’t some successful superstar. I’ll never live up to their expectations, so I’m compensating by creating as fast as I can.

“In my work I started off exploring the themes of dreams and illness. Then I was drawn to Medieval and Renaissance images of saints. I also like playing with scale – giant cat heads on human bodies, or tiny humans intermingled with items on a tabletop landscape. Basically, I just create paintings that I would want to see – that recognize the truth and folly of our existence, that are visually stimulating, perhaps gorgeous, frequently funny.”

Learn more about Pauline through her website here.