The Western Veil
@ Illinois State Museum at Thompson Center
100 W. Randolph St, Chicago, Illinois 60601
Opening Friday, April 25th, from 5PM - 7PM
On view through Friday, August 15th
Death is the veil which those who live call life; They sleep, and it is lifted.—Percy Bysshe Shelley
We ultimately wear veils to guard us against our thoughts of death. In the late summer of 2013, the Western Veil emerged from this idea, as well as a from a profound boredom with my then current work. I knew with boredom comes a certain artistic death.
I decided for that time it was more important to absorb rather than create. I craved minimalism. I threw out many of my belongings and left for New York for a month to gain inspiration and learn from a different artistic landscape. Each night there, on my walk home after long days of studio visits, shows or museum hikes, I would pass a small park. I noticed a person hunched over on a bench with a blanket over their head, draping to the ground. The blanket added protection, and concealed this dark figure. The image stuck with me. “Why has this image affected me?” I kept thinking.
Wandering through Brooklyn, in this state of absorption, and with the lingering image of the veiled homeless person, I then came across a discarded and yellowed book from 1956 and made it my sketchpad. Using China wax crayon, pencil and pale gray Prismacolor as my media, I then abandoned the act of referencing, and was able to trust my hand and years of drafting. I found certain liberation in these limitations. Through that and the hot summer landscape of New York I felt compelled to create again. My comfort zone was gone.
Upon my return from New York, John Lustig, the director of the Illinois State Museum, requested a studio visit. He was impressed with the new direction and energy in my work, and over the next seven months I created a body of thirty-two new works. I am proud he has granted me this platform to reveal The Western Veil. Please come celebrate with me at the official reception!
-Julia Haw
Official Website
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