Remembering 9/11: An art exhibit opens in Morristown

'Beast of Fear' by Len Merlo & Neal Korn, 2002, acrylic on canvas. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Strictly speaking, the exhibition Remembrance of Things Pastthat opens Thursday in Morristown is not about 9/11.

Only five of the 56 works on display at the Gallery at 14 Maple directly refer to the tragedy.

Yet they are the foundation of the show, which opens with a public reception at 6 pm on Sept. 8.

It’s a foundation that is only as durable as our memories… which may or may not be any sturdier than the once-mighty Twin Towers.

“We wanted to acknowledge the 10th anniversary of 9/11,” saidAnne Aronovitch, executive director of the Arts Council of the Morris Area. “But we knew we wanted to approach it from a different standpoint. Nine-eleven is really about our memories. Everyone is affected in some way. We all carry our memories. So we wanted to do a show about memory.”

Curated byVirginia Fabbri Butera,director of the Maloney Art Gallery at the College of Saint Elizabeth, the juried exhibition includes paintings, photographs and mixed-media sculptures by 50 artists who reflect on everything from Stalinism to rape to the simpler pace of bygone days.

Curiously, there are few if any glimpses of lost love–a powerful source of memories for many people.

Recollections often have unexpected triggers, however, and Ellen Denuto evokes a queasy sense of loss with a grimy undershirt. It belonged to her father, and was found in a rusty wheelbarrow after his death. She calls the photograph What Remains.

The fragmentary, bits-and-pieces nature of memory is explored in Eviscera–artistJaz Graf’sdiaries on shreds of faded white fabric that suggest (to this viewer’s foggy memory) Boris Karloff in The Mummy.

Haven’t thought about that in a long time.

But there is no dwelling on such distant memories. Not with those five 9/11 pieces hanging nearby. Some memories refuse to curl around the edges. No mist can shroud them, no sepia tones can soften them.

Remembrance of Things Past–the title is borrowed from a Marcel Proust novel–extends until Feb. 15 on weekdays. Admission is free.

If you can’t make Thursday’s reception, mark Sept. 13 on your calendar.Art Around the Park returns, from 5 to 8 pm, with art on display at six Morristown locations: The Gallery at 14 Maple, the Simon Gallery, the Atrium Gallery, Citibank, Symphony Workplaces in Headquarters Plaza, and the Hyatt Morristown, where a prix fixe dinner awaits everyone afterwards.Read more about Art Around the Park.