ENVY: One Sin, Seven Stories, An Installation Exhibit by Adrien Broom
Adrien Broom
Artwork mixed with subtleties of eeriness, dismay, gore, somberness and loneliness have always appealed to me because it is a visual reflection of my darkest and innermost thoughts and feelings. Any artistic piece of work, whether it is a painting, photograph, popular film or television show beautifully displayed with a flare of eeriness and creepiness intrigues me. These are the things that excite me. These are the things I consider creepy and cool.
How did I find out about Adrien Broom and her installation exhibit ENVY: One Sin, Seven Stories?
Well, let me first start off by saying that I am not an art critic or art snob. I do not have a Rolodex of “Must-See Artists.” It is just myself breaking away from my monotonous daily routine of going to work, home, waking up and going to the gym. I embarked on a journey of discovering all things creepy and cool and I started this adventure through Google Search. Yes. Google Search. Along with my now spur of the moment and adventurous spirit of “I feel like seeing uncanny artwork today.”
Who Is Adrien Broom?
“The worlds I create are physical structures with personalities all their own that interact and become characters in the stories themselves. I am fascinated by the contrast between adult and childhood imagination, and am constantly trying to balance between the two in my work.”—www.adrienbroom.com
Adrien Broom is a contemporary fine art and commercial photographer. Her art implies to childhood fantasy themes with young women as the protagonists. She is a multimedia artist, who describes herself as a storyteller that builds life size and miniature sets. She resides in Brooklyn, NY. Please visit her website www.adrienbroom.com to watch behind the scenes footage of her exhibit along with her other artistic pieces of photography.
ENVY: One Sin, Seven Stories An Installation Exhibit by Adrien Broom at The Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY.
Now before I get into Adrien Broom and her fabulous exhibit, let me answer your first question: Where in the hell is The Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, NY?
Yonkers is a small city located in the Hudson Valley in Westchester County, which is about 30 minutes outside Manhattan, whether you drive or take the train from Grand Central Station. Now everyone I know, embarks on small adventures in the city to discover eclectic works of art, meet new filmmakers, discover new or popular museums, whatever it may be! However, the road to all things interesting and cool is not the next stop on the subway.
The Hudson River Museum
The Hudson River Museum, located in Trevor Park, is a quiet property in Yonkers, NY and sits alongside the serene waters of the Hudson River. Once on the property, you will embrace its beauty, peacefulness and oh let me repeat this again: PEACEFULNESS. If you are from the city, crave to venture out of the rat race, but don’t know where to go and want to view exquisite art, hear birds chirping, and not see pigeons crapping. Then hop on the Metro North Train or rent a zipcar and travel to the Hudson River Museum. It is the largest museum in Westchester County and includes six art galleries, the Andrus Planetarium, and Glenview Mansion, which is a historic house museum of 1876. It is a museum with a unique combination of artistic and entertaining content that satisfies all tastes. See for yourself by viewing the picture below.
What is ENVY: One Sin, Seven Stories, An Installation Exhibit by Adrien Broom:
This exhibit was displayed from June 6- September 2015. It filled three galleries with 58 large-scale digital color prints, three reproductions of stage sets used to shoot some of the photographs and installations. It brilliantly illustrates ENVY—a human being’s hidden sin of jealousy and discontent towards a person’s traits, status, abilities or rewards—by intertwining it with characters and scenarios from classic fairy tales whose plots are driven by the deadly sin, ENVY. The ENVY exhibit is part of Broom’s series, “The Seven Deadly Sins.” “The Seven Deadly Sins” was the first joint programming effort by the Fairfield/Westchester Museum Alliance, a consortium of eight institutions established in 2009 to share resources. Alliance members participating in “The Seven Deadly Sins” are the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, the Bruce Museum, the Hudson River Museum, and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, the Katonah Museum of Art, the Neuberger Museum of Art and Wave Hill. Broom had different exhibits each capturing the other deadly sins, such as Cinderella, Snow White, The Singing Bone, The Black and the White Bride, The Three Little Birds and Beauty and the Beast. The photographs feature well-known people, who portray the characters in these popular fairy tales, such as the Firestone Sisters, who, here, are the Black and White Brides, from the Grimm fairy tale, or, Chef Mario Batali, as “King,” or not ruler in the fairytale.
Because of my travel schedule, I was disappointed that I was not able to visit the other museums featuring the rest of Broom’s “Seven Deadly Sins” exhibit. However, I was fortunate enough to see the ENVY Exhibit displayed at The Hudson River Museum, which highlighted the fairytale Snow White. A tale about an evil queen’s obsession with her stepdaughter’s beauty, who would do anything to be the fairest beauty in the land. It is a tale of beauty and power oozing with the drippings of this deadly sin, Envy.
When I stepped into the exhibit, 2 mannequins suspended from the ceiling, greeted me. The two suspended mannequins, one wearing a white-laced dress and the other wearing a black-laced dress, faced each other in what appeared to be face-to-face combat, or what is entitled “Dance of Death”. This to me, symbolized the battle between good vs. evil; distaste vs. fondness; jealousy vs. unresentful; ENVY vs. LOVE.
"Dance of Death"
As I walk down the stairs, I was mesmerized by the large photographs and glass exhibit, each a representation of the elements of the deadly sin, ENVY. The mirror—self-love; the poisoned apple—symbol of sin and evil as in Adam and Eve; the glass coffin—a fragile beauty. This artwork summed up my innermost feelings in an artistically eerie way. I tend to be a narcissist, yet vulnerable with my emotions when there is someone deemed worthier than I, thereby compelling me to succumb to anger or rage. I know… I need therapy. Below are some pictures I took of the exhibit. You can find the rest of her photos from all her exhibits on her website here
After, viewing Broom's exhibit, I never took into account this deadly sin. I always considered murder, adultery, and dishonor as the most deadly sins, but viewing this artwork reminded me how treacherous the sin, ENVY can be. Yet, it is a beautifully hidden sin within every human being.
Broom is a fantastic artist and I am so glad I discovered her and her exhibit, ENVY: One Sin, Seven Stories, through my trusted Internet friend, Google. I look forward to viewing her latest work and upcoming exhibits. She is a multimedia artist, who beautifully intertwined the heart of a classic fairytale with a flare of dismay, which made me consider this artwork creepy and cool.
