Each key could represent a member of the family in “Family Separation Series Print 1.” Credit: Courtesy of Priscilla Roggenkamp.
The (not) sheep gallery puts the spotlight on Priscilla Roggenkamp’s immigration-related artwork with a solo exhibition.
Roggenkamp’s exhibition, “Wait here,” opened at the (not) sheep gallery March 1 and will run through March 28. The exhibition is a continuation of some ideas that Roggenkamp, an art professor at Ashland University, worked on in the past — namely immigration issues. Roggenkamp said the title of the exhibition refers to the human capital that is lost when people are waiting in immigration facilities.
“Maybe they’re doctors, maybe they’re carpenters, whatever,” Roggenkamp said. “But when they’re put into facilities, all that skill, life experience and enthusiasm for life is just put on hold, sometimes for months, but sometimes for years.”
Despite a solid background in painting and drawing, Roggenkamp turned instead to sculpture for this exhibition, creating sculptures that she hung on walls. When viewers look at them, she said, she wants them to think of pieces of luggage with a sort of human figure, seemingly waiting for the next thing to happen.
Roggenkamp’s “Immigration Quilt” is made out of layered pieces of clothing covered by twines made to look like a chain-link fence — as if these pieces of clothing are people prevented from escaping said chains. In this state of immobility, Roggenkamp said, the immigrant group stagnates, babies are born and people die.
Caren Petersen, the creator and sole curator of the gallery, said she was interested in Roggenkamp’s work because she doesn’t refrain from pushing boundaries and thus fit the political commitment of the gallery.
Petersen created the (not) sheep gallery and has also owned the Muse gallery — another Columbus gallery that specializes in fine arts — for the past 25 years. (not) sheep gallery is dedicated to showing political works from artists that have strong opinions about religion, environmentalism, sexism or LGBTQ issues. Petersen said such artworks might not be as sellable or decorative as work in traditional gallery settings.
“I felt those artists needed a platform to show work that addressed these issues with strong work, but not what people are used to seeing or living with,” Petersen said.
Petersen said she was “revolted” by the election of former President Donald Trump — her original intent was to keep the gallery open for as long as Trump was in office. But she said she soon figured out that Trump’s departure would not resolve everything as political artwork remains salient in the public sphere and there is an ever-growing need to connect people on a subconscious level with art.
With climate change on the rise, Roggenkamp said migration will be on everyone’s lips soon. Refugee camps and immigration bureaucracy are topics that are going to be front and center, she said.
“I just want to keep the human idea of immigration, the fact that it did maybe happen to you in your background, and it might happen to you in your future, even if it’s not happening to you now,” Roggenkamp said.
The exhibition is on display for in-person viewers at the (not) sheep gallery at 17 W. Russell St. and will run until March 28.
