{"id":102020,"date":"2026-03-06T11:39:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T18:39:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=102020"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T19:19:05","slug":"material-memory-and-the-bodys-boundaries-at-finch-lane-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/material-memory-and-the-bodys-boundaries-at-finch-lane-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"Material Memory and the Body\u2019s Boundaries at Finch Lane Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Installation view of Jill Saxton Smith\u2019s exhibition (Un)Contained: On Skin, Boundaries, and the Emotions We Hold at Finch Lane Gallery. Sculptural vessels, textile-like bioplastic works, and a re-skinned armchair explore the idea of skin as both boundary and container.<\/p><\/div>\n

One way of looking at art has always been as a luxury item. Hence the precious metal castings and finest-stone sculptures, the gold-leaf frames, and such personal adornments as jewelry and splendid accessories. Then, in the 20th century, other options emerged. In part, that was a result of taking seriously artworks from non-Western cultures, from places besides Europe and the developed world\u2019s wealthy cities and courts. The logic differed from one artist to the next. Some of the most exciting borrowed from something akin to science: they sought and \u201cfound\u201d their objects in the environment, and the challenging condition they were found in proclaimed their authenticity. Others took as their example Third World cultural artifacts, often the work of exemplary crafts makers who, however, did not respond to the mainstream\u2019s sophisticated examples.<\/h4>\n

American and International artist Jill Saxton Smith might have such examples in mind for parts of her extensive exhibition, (Un)Contained: On Skin, Boundaries, and The Emotions We Hold<\/i>, currently at Finch Lane Gallery. That title might sound daunting, but the work it labels is quite approachable, as often turns out to be the case with explicit names.<\/h4>\n

The most direct way to depict Saxton Smith\u2019s work here might be to say she has taken the skin off some things and placed them instead in practical vessels that call attention to the new skins she gives them. She has also collected stuff identifiable as independent things, as distinct objects in her mind, then put some of them in similar containers to show how, except for lacking the unitizing membrane she provides, they, too, could be thought of as individual beings. The sheer range and variety of what she has found by observing and searching through her environment has the power to fascinate as well as inform her audience.<\/h4>\n
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Jill Saxton Smith, \u201cCollective Communion.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

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Detail of \u201cCollective Communion\u201d by Jill Saxton Smith.<\/p><\/div>\n

The work that makes up her primary example, and the largest display here, is \u201cCollective Communion\u201d\u2014the title suggesting affinity, kinship, or fellow feeling, words often used in the context of rituals. Saxton Smith\u2019s \u201ccommunion\u201d involves approximately 75 individual examples, most held in custom-shaped vessels made by her from that most seminal of materials: clay. The ceramic and its rough handling emphasize the essential point that these are not manufactured, but made, just as living things make their own skins, which in the case of us, her viewers, is the largest organ making up our bodies: larger than any other component of its contents. Spread across the wall in a central location, they make an impact both substantial and aesthetically pleasing.<\/h4>\n

Some of what\u2019s collected here stands apart from the rest. Hanks of wire coiled and shaped in various ways, some seemingly casual and others deliberate, argue that the skin needn\u2019t be physical, but may instead be conceptual. Some, seen beneath opaque covers, recall the Dada and Surrealist experiments of Marcel Duchamp and Man Ray, who placed unidentified objects inside boxes or wrapped them in fabric. The former made evocative sounds when rotated or shaken\u2014artworks then were often meant to be touched\u2014and the latter inspired early works of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose wrapped, mysterious selections could be identified by their shapes.<\/h4>\n
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Jill Saxton Smith, “Maternal Holding, Accumulated Lineage”<\/p><\/div>\n

Readers are, of course, entitled (and welcome) to disagree with me, but I found the absence of overt references to spirituality here to be refreshing. Viewers may always interpret what they see according to their own lights, but the artist specifically refers to physiology and psychology, which we can all agree are subjects physically invoked by what is present in the gallery. Spirituality, of course, is among the optional \u201cemotions we hold,\u201d to quote the precise title of the entire collection.<\/h4>\n

Other works examine additional examples. Several large textile reliefs, each titled \u201cTissue Memory,\u201d may remind viewers with scientific or medical experience of cells, as seen through microscopes, being menaced by bacteria. The question of whether these memories belong to the tissues or to the observer is left open. Many of the titles also refer to \u201cbioplastic,\u201d which is not a material reference often seen on wall cards. A patch of simulated skin made of that material stretches between coils of wire in \u201cHeld Between,\u201d which occupies the place of honor above the fireplace that anchors Finch Lane\u2019s front gallery. (How each exhibiting artist chooses to acknowledge or ignore it is one of the revealing facts the visitor may consider.)<\/h4>\n

Despite its various rips, tears, laminated feathers, and a familiar quilt pattern, a large, hanging rectangle made of several colors of bioplastic and titled \u201cMaternal Holding, Accumulated Lineage,\u201d suggests a stained-glass window, and so emphasizes the large universe of references covered by skin. Windows, after all, are part of what is properly called the \u201cskins\u201d of buildings. Also on that wall are three dozen untitled metal circles, some with bioplastic stretched across them like embroidery hoops and others empty. These are suspended in space at several different distances from the wall, onto which these three-dimensional ranks of \u201ccells\u201d project their images in the form of shadows. Clearly, the title emotions and their connected memories are represented visually here, which seems arguably more accurate than texts. It\u2019s also a reminder that even the most \u201cContemporary\u201d artworks still possess aesthetic qualities.<\/h4>\n
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Installation view of “Bare Holding” (foreground) and “Held Between”<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the more recent works is also the most experimental. \u201cBare Holding\u201d began as a found, overstuffed armchair that the artist stripped of its upholstery \u201cskin\u201d and re-covered with bioplastic, which reveals its various foam and feather interiors. Perhaps meant as a climax to the show, it certainly proffers a transition from the initial insights around it to their real-world applications. Chairs are one of the most popular subjects in art: think of the great American Impressionist, Mary Cassatt, and all the chairs, opera seats, and museum benches on which she places her mothers, their companions, and especially their children. Consider how she reveals so much about them through their slight, exposed skins. Jill Saxton Smith, without losing sight of her scientific bonafides, has aligned her work with some of the finest antecedents in the world at large.<\/h4>\n

Jill Saxton Smith, (Un)Contained: On Skin, Boundaries, and The Emotions We Hold, <\/i>Finch Lane Gallery<\/a>, Salt Lake City, through Apr. 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One way of looking at art has always been as a luxury item. Hence the precious metal castings and finest-stone sculptures, the gold-leaf frames, and such personal adornments as jewelry and splendid accessories. Then, in the 20th century, other options emerged. In part, that was a result of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":847,"featured_media":102026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,14],"tags":[96,4841],"class_list":["post-102020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exhibition_reviews","category-visual_arts","tag-finch-lane-gallery","tag-jill-saxton-smith"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/IMG_4499_2-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 19:01:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/847"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102020"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102030,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102020\/revisions\/102030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}