Do Not Be Fooled By Little Things

Art Review on Megan Franklin's series "Found (not lost.)"

DO NOT BE FOOLED BY LITTLE THINGS

"Found (not lost.)" by Artist Megan Franklin

This is an apt title for this new series of works by Megan Franklin.

"Found (not lost.)" describes these intimate pieces perfectly, for did not the artist literally salvage these once-lost items from the debris of time? And in so doing, has she not reclaimed for them their integrity, their unique histories (which one can only surmise) and elevated these unclaimed orphans to the status of eternal remembrance?

This is mature work. The pervading mood of melancholia is mitigated by a playfulness in how the objects are arranged. Their intimacy invites close inspection, wonderment, contemplation and analysis.

With images cast in the sepia-toned antiquity, the artist hits every right note in this archeological dig: buttons, coins, keys, keyholes, frozen insects, delicate feathers, flowers and lace, proliferate along with the more unusual historic tokens. Meticulously placed over old photographs from forgotten family albums, they become artifacts to the fragility of life. And each little object she picks from obscurity is symbolic of the tragic-comedy, this penultimate dance between Life and Death, the dance that Death always wins.

Coins: wealth has the power to liberate one's life but means nothing to Death.

Insects: these dried out shells devoid of souls are Death's relics.

Feathers, Flowers, Lace: their wispy frailty are symbolic of Death's withering embrace.

Family Photographs: people unknown, with identities lost to time, are Death's nameless children. (Megan often covers their eyes or obscures their faces with other objects to demonstrate this 'erasure' of identity.)

Symbolic of the garments that clothed once-living individuals, buttons are probably the most personal of all the items here. Whose hands have touched them, sewn them, used them day after day after day? Their very presence, so small and easily overlooked, speaks to the enormity of the absence: the distinct irreplaceable human inside the clothes.

But the key to it all is the Key. And its female counterpart, the Keyhole. In a very clever manner, Megan manages to incorporate the concept of sex, of conception, the very mechanism whereby life may abound.

The Key/Keyhole co-dependence is a specific thing: only this key fits that keyhole. Only this keyhole takes that key. Keys unlock doors. Keys unlock drawers, boxes, all numbers of things. What would we find there, what mysteries await, if we could but find The Key?

William Blake said, "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite." In her way, Franklin is drawing a parallel: one might find the infinite within these discarded remnants of lives lived. In doing so, she also entertains the idea of the powerful totem, the hallowed artifact, the Holy Grail with its sublime spiritual force, the idea that a common banal utilitarian object (like a key) may hold within it an accrual of all the life-forces that have touched it over time.

The Key/Keyhole co-dependence not only symbolizes that there may be a way to unlock the mysteries of Mrs. Franklin's seemingly random detritus but also the larger interplay and workings of Life & Death itself.

It's quite an achievement.

- Tony Z Sienzant

(artist, writer, musician)

Works by Megan Franklin are currently on view until February 24th at Connexions Gallery, 213 Northampton Street Easton, PA 18042 (610) 250-7627
Check her website: http://beruffled.blogspot.com/#!/2013/01/found-not-lost.html