Tilden Township artist Jay Ressler’s exhibit, “Seven Deadly Sins (Plus a Few),” is currently featured at the Art Plus Gallery, 604 Penn Ave., Reading. The show, which includes layered images from photographs and film, is open through Sunday, April 3.
“What I’ve tried to do is exemplify some of the different questions that arise from the turmoil and tumult of the world,” Ressler said of the show.
He used images captured from films and other video footage, layered sometimes with original images from his photographs, to create complex pieces to comment on each of the “sins” in his show. The title of each hints at the meaning of the pieces.
Most pieces were created for the show, but “Genocidal Wrath” dates to a 2008 Pittsburg show and combines images from “Hotel Rwanda” and “The Killing Fields.” The piece explores a topic of intense interest to Ressler: genocide in Cambodia in the late 1970s.
“Envy” took images from “Jealosy” (a 2010 French film) and “Mad Love” (a classic work from 1935).
“I thought it was good to do envy in black and white,” Ressler said, “because jealousy can make us see the world as strictly black and white.”
For each piece using film stills, Ressler estimated he took a hundred shots to find the right image to use. Many times, he began looking for a shot from one film, only to eventually turn to an entirely different piece to find the right image.
“When you shoot, when you make a still of a motion figure,” he explained, “you can sometimes capture the transition, the images from two different frames.”
“Pax Imperator” is a commentary on war, peace and the propaganda used to justify war, Ressler said. He took inspiration from the film “Apocalypse Now” as well as a poem from Oscar Wilde, “Ave Imperatrix.” For “Capitalist Greed,” he combined stills from “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “Chicago.”
“The images of the dancers is intriguing,” the artist said of the latter. “It’s the idea of the wage slaves being trapped in boxes.”
Ressler tackled steamy subjects like “Lust” and “Gluttony” and said he took a more humorous approach for “Sloth.” He also included three original photographs in the show: “Padlocked, No Sanctuary,” “Global Warming” and “Bittersweet Repose.” The latter includes the picture of a decommissioned sugar refinery oven that Ressler took on a recent tour of Cuba.
“It’s a hopeful piece, really,” he explained. “They’re finding new ways to rebuild their economy.”
Two of the show’s pieces are encaustic works, “Fog of War” and “Eyes on and Skating Over the Holy Trinity.” In these, Ressler combined photographs, wax paint and three-dimensional objects such as barbed wire and a toy skateboard.
In “I Can’t Breathe,” Ressler used images from the Staten Island arrest of Eric Garner, which led to his death, as well as pictures of political unrest in Ferguson, Mo., and stills from Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing.” The artist turned to ancient Greek myth for inspiration in “Amphisbaena,” examining the “two-sided coin” of anti-Semitism and Islamic phobia.
With many of the pieces, Ressler included a quote from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” in his commentary. This was true of “Pride,” which included images from “The Phantom of the Opera” and “Legend of Black Scorpion” along with an original photo of shattered glass. Chaucer wrote, “Of the root of these seven sins is Pride, the general root of all harms.”
Readers may see Ressler’s exhibit in person at Art Plus through early April. The gallery is open Tuesdays from noon to 5 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays from noon to 7 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Artist members take turns staffing the Art Plus gallery and also rotate their pieces in the front room. The current display includes abstract acrylics, surreal pencil drawings, fiber arts and realistic oils, plus handmade jewelry and pottery. Resser is one of four photographers in the group, which typically includes about two dozen members.
“We try to keep to three members in the same discipline,” he said. A number of the artists retired this year, and the gallery is hoping to recruit some new members, including three-dimensional artists.
For additional information on the Art Plus Gallery, visit artplusgallerypa.com or call 610-375-9122. For more information on Ressler, including his links and commentary on the “Seven Deadly Sins” show, visit jayressler.com.
