On Oct. 13, 2023 the Margaret Martin Gehman Gallery opened to show Dymphna de Wild’s art, born in the Netherlands and resident in Belgium for a period of time before moving to the United States to work as a professor at James Madison University. The gallery was filled with students and local residents who wanted to submerge into Dymphna Wild’s world. Wild’s artwork seemed to confuse the spectators at first, and consequently increase their curiosity over the meaning of each of the pieces.
The art piece that took everyone’s attention was the coffee filter book, which contains over 800 coffee filters used creatively as a representation of each day of the pandemic lockdown. The coffee filter book started out of the idea of a “ten hour morning coffee hour” between Wild and her husband. After using the filter, the artist would write some passages or draw something to express what was happening in her life during that time. An interesting passage said: “restless, what can I do, feel trapped.” The book is the physical image of the time that we spent locked, or trapped as the artist expresses. Everyone in the room had experienced the COVID-19 pandemic, each in their own unique way, which made the piece a representation of something different for each individual.
Although the coffee filters book was the most talked about, there were other pieces that had stories awaiting to be told. On the walls hung collages. When thinking about a collage, one might think about magazines or newspapers compiled to create meaning. For the artist, it is more than that, she finds essential having her own pictures in all of her artwork and preferably needs a silent place to be able to create. To play with textures, different materials were used, giving them a new meaning and purpose of existence. She likes touching the materials while placing them in the canvas, consequently leading her to prefer working with physical materials rather than with a computer. This is what makes her art authentic.
Only seeing the pieces and not receiving an explanation of their meaning would have left the viewer without a deep appreciation for the artwork since it has an abstract meaning. In order to make her point clear, Wild decided to name all of her art with random names such as “chair” or “leather,” which the public found hilarious and unexpected.
When the art exhibit presentation came to an end, people present got to understand the art better and got to know the artist a little better as well. People stayed in the gallery to give a second look to the unique collages and books. However, leaving the art gallery would not be the end for many. Wild not only shared her art, she also left a lesson: what matters is not the looks of the result, what truly matters is the “journey.”
