Press Release

 
WHAT:             Solo Show – PRELUDE TO RED by Cassie Worley

WHEN:             Feb 9th – March 30th 2007
                        Opening reception Feb 9th 6-9 pm   
 
WHERE:           GALLERI URBANE / MARFA
                        212 San Antonio ST
                        POB 1506
                        Marfa TX 79843
 
CONTACT:        Ree Willaford
                        432.729.4200            
                        art@galleriurbane.com   
                        www.galleriurbane.com   
 
*Additional press images available upon request.
 
Galleri Urbane / Marfa announces a new exhibit, “Prelude to Red” by Cassie Worley. To understand Worley’s show you may want to first check out the artist’s website, www.cassieworley.com. The site opens with the image of a deceased wolf, sprawled against a white backdrop. Only the wolf isn’t a wolf, but a child dressed in wolf’s clothing. Before the implications of the image can fully register, a shower of heads – of wolves, of Little Red Riding Hood – come raining down in a pool of animated blood.  The scene is both familiar and foreign, the juxtaposition of a fairy tale narrative made famous by the Brothers Grimm and an adaptation of said narrative, in which the ending is far from happy.
 
“Prelude to Red” features a series of ten mixed-media illustrations, 30” x 40” each, entitled “X Begat Y Begat C,” as well a short film entitled “Rise and Shine.” The illustrations are select pages from a David and Goliath coloring book, which the artist scanned and manipulated into a new story. In Worley’s version, the heroic David, king of Israel, gives birth to Saddam Hussein, who later gives birth to the traitorous Absalom. When David learns of his grandson’s plot to kill Saddam, David slays Absalom to save Saddam, who, in an act of vengeance, then kills David, and spends the rest of his life grieving for both his father and son. Throughout this tale, the line drawings have been paired with hand-drawings and found illustrations from fairytale and nursery rhyme picture books. There’s a jet plane in one frame, a flying witch in another. Sleeping beauty makes an appearance, as does Little Bo Peep, Old Mother Hubbard, and a host of ambisexual characters. As a result, the viewer is pulled back and forth between a youthful past and an extremely adult present.
 
Worley reinterprets another Biblical story in her short film, “Rise and Shine.” Here, it’s the tale of Noah’s Ark that’s being manipulated and retold.  The film is comprised of a montage of images – illustrations of Noah and his animals from children’s books, photographs of snorkellers, of dead fish, of floating cadavers and tidal waves – being flashed before the viewer at increasing speed. Naturally, the soundtrack is “Rise and Shine,” its familiar “the Lord said to Noah, there’s gonna be a floody floody” being enthusiastically belted out by faceless girls and boys. But when set against the starker images, the innocence of the children’s singing, like the ebullient piano score accompanying them, creates a profound dissonance in the viewer. Noah’s Ark is no longer simply a tale about saving animals, but an ominous portent of natural and man-made disasters to come.
 
“Fairy tales and Biblical myths are constantly adapted to suit the needs of modern times,” explains Worley, of her preoccupation with Biblical and ancient mythologies. “However, as one adaptation replaces another, the original goals of the tale become displaced. Characters become tattered, confused and often interchangeable. The moral becomes difficult to reach.” By altering these stories, presenting them in a way that generates a new narrative while calling attention to the alterations, Worley imbues the classic tales with clear morals – of the particular story, and of the stories as a whole. “All of my work is connected in that the study of one mythology leads to another,” says Worley, for whom the stories of Noah and David led to that of Little Red and the Big Bad Wolf.
 
About the artist: Cassie Worley was born in Richmond, Virginia. She received her BFA in Studio Art from James Madison University, as well as her MFA in Photography from Rochester Institute of Technology.
 
Please go to the website to view the show at www.galleriurbane.com  (after TK) or please contact Ree Willaford at 432.729.4200 for more information. The show begins FEB 9 through MARCH 30. Galleri Urbane is open daily from 9-6 or by appointment.