UMO art exhibit’s altars, orbs, wax and glass appeal to senses

ORONO – “Little Altars Everywhere” is the title of a popular Rebecca Wells novel, but it describes the installation “Milagros” at the University of Maine’s Carnegie galleries equally well.

It’s apparent the space has been transformed as soon as you enter the building. Porcelain fishhooks hang from the ceiling of the lobby, draped with long, dark locks. Tufts of hair sprout from the title wall like a mohawk. Above, a long-boarded-up window has been exposed, and it glows in shades of peach and gray

like the stained glass in a modern cathedral.

In “Milagros” – named for the small metal charms that parishioners leave as offerings in Mexican churches – UM art professors Constant Albertson, Susan Camp and Andy Mauery have created an exhibit that’s part reliquary, part shrine. The imagery is strong, arresting and utterly absorbing.

Albertson’s porcelain vessels pay homage to nature, human and otherwise. Mauery, who has recently incorporated glassblowing into her art, plays with the idea of enclosed space, of access and denial. Though Camp’s work – in particular a series of photo transfers that focus tightly on thorns piercing the skin of her finger, with shallow pools of plasma glistening in the wounds – has overt religious references, the visual effect stands alone.

“The wounding is a kind of mark-making, as is the healing,” Camp said. “It’s not about self-abuse. It’s not about pain. It’s very much about the wonder of the human body.”

In “The Myth of Fingerprints,” Mauery has created a curtain of fishing wire and hand-pressed wax beads that shrouds the north wall of the gallery. It cascades from the ceiling of the second story and appears to flow through the floor into the space below.

“In a really simple way, it’s a boundary that’s permeable,” Mauery said by phone from New Mexico, where she is studying glassblowing for the summer. “It fills the space, but it changes. Every time you move it looks different.”

The whole space looks different – with the help of Alan Stubbs, Wayne Hall and student Celena Grover, Camp knocked down a wall to reveal a long-obscured window. Camp’s translucent digital prints cover the glass, and a crimson velvet pillow beckons viewers to kneel. Together, the installations invite quiet contemplation, but they also can inspire laughter.

Albertson’s altars and shrines were inspired in part by the maritime pre-Columbian artwork she saw on a trip to Mexico. The imagery incorporated large frogs, salamanders, dogs and humans and a recurring pattern of circular indentations, which symbolized water. Albertson, who is in the midst of a major home renovation, found these circles reminded her of another pattern – the one on the inside of the commercial washers and dryers, which she saw at the laundromats she haunted while her plumbing was out of commission.

“Playfulness is such an important part of what we all thought about,” Alberston said.

“Milagros,” with its altars and orbs, hair and skin, wax and glass, appeals to all the senses. The longer viewers spend with it, the more they’ll see.

“There’s a pull between recognizing the subject and seeing it as an image,” Albertson said. “It’s playing with perception, how you choose to view it and what you bracket out – the form and shape and lights.”

“Milagros” is on view through Sept. 9 at the Carnegie Galleries on the University of Maine campus in Orono. Gallery hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. The exhibit is free and open to the public. A closing reception will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 9. The public is welcome.