Marcy Hermansader

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One Thousand Subtractions

When my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, I became responsible for running his household, which included handling all his mail. I started noticing the patterns inside security envelopes and began to save them. For about a year I sorted them into categories and enjoyed watching the piles grow. I was intrigued by the notion that these myriad patterns function as camouflage, and that some even seemed like abstract depictions of dementia. When I opened the seams of the envelopes and laid them flat, the resulting shapes had connotations as well – of houses, bathrobes, wings. Given the connections I was making, I decided to try using them to illustrate how my father was changing. What developed were works that combine color copies of the envelopes with color copies or archival digital photographs of my father and his environment, using a process of weaving and/or collage. The photographs were taken collaboratively with my partner Jonathan Flaccus. Alzheimer’s has been called a disease of one thousand subtractions. The technique I am using mirrors this loss by removing bits of information, leaving a fractured field that is only slowly decipherable. Weaving by its very nature stretches the image. Sometimes I exaggerate this effect by weaving in additional strips of pattern causing his face to become babyish, and suggesting the distortions of time and space that were a part of his experience. The usual response to Alzheimer’s is to see it only in terms of tragedy. What engaged me the most in making this work was a sense of the mystery that was unfolding.

Bio

Marcy Hermansader grew up in West Redding, Connecticut and received a BFA in Sculpture from the Philadelphia College of Art in 1973. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vermont Council on the Arts, and the Vermont Community Foundation. She has had one person exhibitions at Williams College Museum of Art, the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Her work is represented by Fleisher/Ollman Gallery of Philadelphia. Selected group shows include the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, and DC Moore Gallery. Her work is in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the deCordova Museum, and the Robert Hull Fleming Museum, among others. Hermansader lives in Putney, Vermont with her partner Jonathan Flaccus, owner of The Unique Antique.