THE ART OF NOSTALGIA
Allison Hyde tries to capture the ephemeral before it’s too late | BY WILLIAM KENNEDY
A
t first glance, someone simply piled junk in a corner: burned
furniture, broken picture frames, shattered glass — debris
from a house fire or human detritus stumbled upon in an
abandoned home.
Upon closer inspection, there’s method in the flow of
objects; the process of devastation and decay is rendered in stark and
arresting three dimensions and symmetry among the chaos. This is
“Mourning the Ephemeral,” a 2011 installation from Eugene artist
and UO MFA printmaking graduate Allison Hyde.
“I’m innately very nostalgic,” Hyde says. “I’ve always been
fascinated with memory, nostalgia and sentiment embodied in certain
things — the way people feel compelled to take photos, the way tangible
things contribute to our sense of identity throughout our lives.”
While Hyde received her MFA in printmaking, she’s an
interdisciplinary artist, which is a natural choice considering her
mentor, the late Seattle artist Patrick Haskett, dabbled in printmaking,
painting and sculpture. “I do a lot of installation, sculpture, painting
and drawing,” she says.
Hyde’s brand of nostalgia is making an impression: In 2013 her
work was exhibited at the Janet Turner Print Museum in Chico,
California, and “Mourning the Ephemeral” was installed for 10th
Northwest Biennial at the Tacoma Art Museum in 2012 where her
prints are currently on view for Ink This! Contemporary Print Arts in
the Northwest.
Sample Hyde’s portfolio and see works of a distinct vision that
flip concepts of beauty, truth, memory and art. “What Remains: in
mid air” (serigraph with ash and charcoal on Mylar) depicts a child
jumping, perhaps on a bed or pillows — a heavily distressed image
of what might normally be a joyful activity but is here imbued with
sadness.
“History Reflected” is silver spoons, splayed akimbo upon a
mirror, each spoon tagged delicately with an address. Like a lot of
objects in Hyde’s work, she found the spoons at an estate sale.
“Someone might have had furniture for 40 years,” Hyde says. “These
things to one person have all this value and they end up getting
discarded.”
This sense of valuing the memory alongside a panicked urgency
to preserve history before it’s gone is a common thread throughout
Hyde’s pieces. “My work has been black and white, aesthetically
dark,” Hyde says. She feels that anytime there’s a color chosen, it
implies something. Hyde wants her work to be objective, “a
documentation of sorts,” she says.
“We had a house fire when I was a child. It happened the same year
my parents were divorced,” Hyde explains. “It was a pivotal time in my
life: loss associated with a tangible loss. A lot of my work investigates
that sense of loss: What are the things that mean most to you?”
Now Hyde will be making new memories in a 17th-century
French convent — Le CouvaNT. The convent in Southwest France
has been transformed into a sort of artist collective and Hyde was
selected for an artist residency. At Le CouvaNT, Hyde will collaborate
with international artists and create an entirely new body of work.
She hopes to return to Eugene’s art scene in nine to 12 months.
BEFORE LEAVING FOR FRANCE, ALLISON HYDE WAS THE
DIRECTOR AT THE UO’S LAVERNE KRAUSE GALLERY, A
UO ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR AND THE SECRETARY FOR THE
WATERSHED ARTS FOUNDATION
To learn more about the work of Allison Hyde go to allisonhyde.com.
PHOTO BY TRASK BEDORTHA
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