"Heads" : Papier-mache sculpture installation by Sherry Deatrick

January 23, 2004 -- 6:00pm
Deatrick Gallery, 1661 Story Ave, Louisville KY

In ancient Jewish mysticism we find the story of the Golem, in which a Rabbi creates a statue of a man out of clay and imbues it with life. In modern-day Louisville we find a woman who is doing the same thing, but on a scale less likely to terrify the villagers. Like the man in the Louis Prima song, Sherry Deatrick's Golems ain't got no body. And if you disbelieve that her heads are alive, try spending a night at home alone with one staring at you. Gradually you start to hear it whispering messages in your head that only you can hear. (This is not a bad thing. We promise.)

Deatrick's cranial creations are made of paper, paste, raw emotion, and in the tradition of Colonel Sanders, "secret ingredients". Her sources of paper run the gamut from recycling newspapers and junk mail, to her own homemade paper made from scratch, to modeling with pure pulp. Papier-mache has always been a popular medium in crafts, but nowadays people who work with it as a primary fine art medium are few and far between. "I think Papier-mache will become, by necessity if not by choice, the key sculpture medium of the 21st century", says Deatrick, and her idea is one whose time has certainly come. Her work has already drawn recent attention from many quarters, and will only expand in 2004.

The "Heads" show will be the inaugural unveiling of her army of little familiars (as well as the cooperative gallery that bears her name), and for the first time the public will have the opportunity to view a large number of them at once. They'll also have the chance to adopt them and take them home. As a post-post-modern anthropomorphic fetish object, it beats Pet Rocks, Beanie Babies or Tamagotchis, and surely will better stand the test of time. - - Jennifer Ray

Contact Sherry at jejune14@iglou.com

Contact the Deatrick Gallery at deatrickgallery@yahoo.com