In a time of constant social and political unrest, art has been used in different mediums to express society’s grief as captured by the artist.
In a time of constant social and political unrest, art has been used in different mediums to express society’s grief as captured by the artist.
Emily Erb, who hails from Richmond but now calls Philadelphia home, is one of those artists and her exhibit “Loosely Loaded” at the Visual Arts Center of Richmond is a loose narrative exhibit on social issues past and present.
The collection tackles issues from corruption in governments to the mistreatment of the environment all painted onto delicate silk.
“They are usually takes on different issues, usually. A lot of it is about America and the economy and how that affects the rest of the world,” Erb said about what inspires her work.
Erb is influenced by these events and the history inside them along with artists that circle around similar issues. “I like alot of Asian art. If I go to the art museum I usually go to the Indian art section,” she said. “I like a lot of contemporary Asian artists of today too because they do a lot of social justice stuff.”
Erb uses loosely loaded as a term to “talk about the light and fragile nature of the silk as opposed to the heavy imagery that I’m using.” The narrative is also loose, not an actual story but “people existing on planet Earth.”
“Loosely Loaded” tackles a broad range of topics. The aforementioned corruption and environmental issues are a few of the topics she tackles.
Erb depicts corruption in her piece “Luncheon in the Grass,” (seen below) using a collage of oil and coal plants and a wealthy couple dining outside of it. “That one is more about the people at the top making money off all the destruction and doesn’t matter if its coal or oil but they’re having a lovely picnic in the midst of disaster,” Erb said.
Or how about her piece “In God We Trust”, a depiction of Christianity’s history in America. The piece uses dollar bills throughout U.S. history and forms into a cross to show the close and at times ugly history between religion and money in this country.
She does the same with the biohazard symbol, formulating the symbol with dollar bills to draw a connection between the money and its ties to environmental problems.
It is her piece “Neverending Story,” (seen below) which happens to be her favorite, this battle is most prevalent.
The piece captures gun violence as a never-ending cycle, using guns as the scales for two snakes trying to kill each other. A simple yet challenging piece to look at compared to recent Pulse Nightclub Mass Shooting and Dallas protest shootings in retaliation for the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.
“It’s not really a coincidence when it happens all the time, the name of the piece is ‘Neverending story.’ It’s going to be up for three months and it’s going to happen in that three months, there’s shootings at least every three months,” Erb said.
A sad truth but a piece of art that forces a viewer to think and “add your own brain”, although Erb herself leaves most topics open ended. “I don’t actually have an answer, get rid of the guns? I don’t know.,” she said. “I think my job as an artist is to reflect what I see around me but not necessarily to provide solutions”
Along with “Neverending story,” “Biohazard and in “In God we trust,” Erb has several other pieces in the gallery. Her purpose is to artistically comment on social issues new and old, but she urges viewers to put their own meaning on them.
“Loosely Loaded” is a socially conscious exhibit that’s currently on display at Visual Arts Center of Richmond until August 28th. It’s free and open to the public.
