For a brief time, there's a magical woodland growing inside an unassuming White River Junction storefront. "Forest for the Trees," on view through this weekend at Kishka Gallery & Library, features soft sculpture by Brooklyn artist Elodie Blanchard.
Each of Blanchard's Seussian creations is boldly colored and wildly textured. They sprout from the ceiling and floor like squishy stalactites and stalagmites. A few are only about three feet high, but many tower seven feet or more overhead. Though these are distinct sculptures, Kishka codirectors Ben Finer and Bevan Dunbar have displayed them as an immersive installation. A viewer can wander through groves and thickets and get lost.
While they work en masse, these sculptures are really individual — as in, they have names, such as "Desmond" and "Claudine," that immediately impart personalities to the treelike forms. "Nicole," growing out of a moppy base, has her arms outstretched like a dancer pretending to be a tree. "Leo" has long, droopy tassels, like an exhausted cheerleader. "Xander" has stubby antennae and bulbous growths that give him a Muppet vibe. "Kyle," in gray and white, seems sophisticated: a ridiculous tree sculpture here on serious business.
Blanchard creates her works with reused textiles, ranging from leathers to industrial felt to scraps of sweater or printed T-shirt. They give her work variety and a rich tactility. Some fabrics stretch over burls and growths; others are solid and smooth, like the trunk of a beech. While they look like something a kid might dream up, each construction is durable and fastidiously crafted.
The artist uses her sewing machine as a drawing tool, creating contrasting lines of stitching and areas of dense embroidery. This is especially true in her series of "Goddesses," eight-to-nine-foot-tall felt works that hang on the walls surrounding the forest.
Each Goddess has a face with cut-out features that looks wearable. These faces seem to reference traditional performance or ceremonial masks from various parts of the world. But they're silly instead of sacred, with a bit of tiki kitsch to them, if less ferocity. These deities are not exactly fire-and-brimstone types: "Goddess 11" has ears that stick out and a green, welcoming smile. "Goddess 9," with her loopy hair and long, skinny nose, looks like she's walking a poodle.
Blanchard's two series of creations combine with Kishka's already bright and cozy atmosphere to make a super fun show. According to Dunbar, visiting kids regularly play games that involve finding each named character on the gallery checklist. Parents might strongly consider spending their weekend curled up in a corner of this fantastical forest, reading through Kishka's library of art books and thanking the Goddesses that school will soon begin again.