A partial view of one wall
installed at Storefront Studio during the October, 1998 exhibit.
This section shows several
streams of dialogue addressing child/parent relationships,
the prone figure, and the
impact of culture on self-perception.*
Mother Tongue in St. Louis is an expanding body of work that invites on-going community participation. It is based on the original Mother Tongue Project begun by Mary Bernstein and Terry Rumble in Holyoke, Massachusetts. The project uses a modular 1 x 4’ panel as an aesthetic structure for an artist dialogue. Each panel represents a thought, "word", or phrase that is responding to other images and panels in the exhibit. As the numbers of panels increase, the flow of the dialogue changes. The original Mother Tongue has been growing and travelling since 1991. Some of the original panels can be viewed at the following location:
Mother Tongue was brought to St. Louis in September and October, 1998 by the Visual Dialogues Project, with support from The Art Therapy Center and Webster University. About 90 of the original 300 panels were shown for a month at Webster’s Hunt Gallery and then were moved for another month to the Storefront Studio, where on-site workshops were held to encourage public participation in the exhibit. Twenty panels were produced by St. Louis artists, art therapists and art students. These panels now form a core of work that will remain in the St. Louis regional area for further dialogue. The St. Louis-made panels are housed at the Storefront Studio in St. Louis. They can be viewed by contacting Carol Lark at (314) 968-6868. The Studio does not keep regular viewing hours.
A partial view of one wall
installed at Storefront Studio during the October, 1998 exhibit.
This section shows several
streams of dialogue addressing child/parent relationships,
the prone figure, and the
impact of culture on self-perception.*
Local and regional artists are encouraged to join Mother Tongue by making panels in response to the existing body of work. Viewing times can be arranged by calling Carol Lark at (314)968-6868. Panel construction guidelines and artist information are available by sending a self-addressed, stamped legal size envelope to The Art Therapy Center, 6201 Arsenal, St. Louis, MO 63139.A monthly "Core Group Dialogue" also takes place at the studio and at other locations. The Core Group Dialogue is an opportunity for artists to experiment with aesthetic dialogue processes. This is very different from collaboration in which a goal is an agreed-upon finished product. Instead, the art dialogue is open-ended, with a minimum of suggested structure and the option to shape the process and outcome spontaneously by the group. The dialogue is based on David Bohm’s concepts of dialogue, group coherence, suspension and proprioception.
* NOTE: These sections show the October, 1998 Mother Tongue in St. Louis installation including panels from the original Mother Tongue collection in Holyoke, MA. Storefront Studio currently houses a collection of about 20 panels made by St. Louis area artists. Click on Mother Tongue Project above or here to go to the original Mother Tongue web site.Visual Dialogues Project original Mother Tongue Left Bank Book Exhibit TREC: Talking RaceThis page is sponsored by The Art Therapy Center