AN EVOCATION...

"The destruction of fine gilded wood frames throughout the centuries is a lost footnote in art history. For hundreds of years, until the middle of the 20th century, an untold number of frames were burned to recover their gold. Recreated here with discarded flood-damaged frames and facsimiles, our Frame Burn Pile is an evocation of those acts. The charred remains represent the first stage of reducing gilded wood frames to ashes that would then be further fired to recover gold. Over centuries, countless frames were thus lost through the process of war and revolution, changing tastes and vagaries in fashion, and ignorance of the art form of the period frame.  Here is transformation, alchemy of loss: a memorial to an art form mostly lost and still disappearing in our time.  The Salon Wall displays a selection of gilded wood frames dating from the late 16th century up through the early 20th century. These empty frames, hung floor to ceiling in traditional “salon” style on a wall painted with historic “picture gallery red”, represent the “before” picture. Together, the Frame Burn Pile and Salon Wall evoke the destruction of our cultural heritage, the evolution of art and disregard for common history, the lost traditions of art and craftsmanship — a transformation of culture into currency."