Donovan Crosby - Kindertotenlieder

Project room: Matt Haber – Storm Withstanders
July 1 – August 12, 2006
Reception: Saturday, July 1 from 6-9pm

This summer sixspace is proud to present Kindertotenlieder, the first solo exhibition by California-based artist Donovan Crosby. In her new acrylic paintings (on canvas and panel), she portrays Victorian-era children with flowers. Using the saccharine iconography of the 19th century, Crosby plays on the irony and perhaps oversimplification of our idealized expectations regarding the imagery of children or flowers. Often perceived merely as "pretty little things," each can carry within a fundamental "darkness" and complexity that, while disturbing in some regards, is also a natural component.

The depiction of certain flowers in Kindertotenlieder reference a "language of flowers" that was a common tradition in Napoleonic France through Victorian-era England. Citing two authoritative historical sources, Crosby utilized floral meanings that have meanings such as "absence," "reverie," and "hatred" that counter-act the quaint notion that flowers, and subsequently children, are wholesome and simplistic – for instance, the symbolic use of flowers was as much present in superstition and proverbs as it was communications and ceremonies. These dark undertones also signify the horrible living conditions many children suffered during the 19th century. The title of the exhibition itself, Kindertotenlieder, ("Songs on the Death of Children") stems from the early 1900s song cycle for voice and orchestra by Gustav Mahler. Mahler's cycle was based on 5 of the 425 poems written by Friedrich Rückert in 1833-34 as "outpouring of grief" after two of his children died in an interval of sixteen days. Ironically, years after Mahler composed his opera, his own child also passed away. Exploring these histories, Crosby attempts to construct an aesthetic tale of these children both as they hoped to be seen but also with something of a foreboding nature lingering around them, seeping through the façade.

Donovan Crosby (born 1975) received her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1997. Crosby has held exhibitions in New York, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles with Kindertotenlieder marking her debut solo exhibition. She has been featured publications such as Juxtapoz Magazine and the Los Angeles Times and was recently commissioned by Converse for an upcoming campaign.

Images from the show