Ex-Mormon artist pulls exhibition from AZ museum over concurrent Mormon art show

[smac97]

Ex-Mormon artist pulls exhibition from Arizona museum over concurrent Mormon art show

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Arizona’s Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum (MCA Museum) has revised its seasonal exhibition programme after an artist cancelled a show slated to run concurrently with a survey of artists affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), commonly known as the Mormon church.

The Phoenix-based artist Angela Ellsworth, a former Mormon who frequently critiques the religion in her work, says she withdrew her exhibition due to a lack of communication with MCA Museum. The museum is currently hosting Materializing Mormonism: Trajectories in Contemporary Latter-day Saint Art (until 4 August), an exhibition of Mormon artists organised by the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, a privately funded non-profit that promotes contemporary Mormon art.

"Angela Ellsworth, a former Mormon who frequently critiques the religion in her work..."

Ellsworth seems to be an interesting figure.  An introductory photo of her from a 2017 exhibition:

Interesting.

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Ellsworth hoped MCA Museum would have been more proactive in co-ordinating a symposium or panel to contextualise the two exhibitions. “I thought it was brave and smart that I was invited, but there wasn’t much planning for a dialogue between the shows,” she tells The Art Newspaper. “I needed to have a more concrete conversation and wasn’t getting much back from the museum at that time.”

Is this a common thing?  For museums hosting multiple exhibitions to facilitate/require "dialogue between the shows?"

I would have thought that each exhibition would be allowed to do its own thing, have its own say, etc.

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Ellsworth had proposed several ideas—for example, bringing in excommunicated Mormon scholars—because presenting her own work “next to an LDS-curated exhibition didn’t seem to make sense on its own”, she says. But there was “silence” from organisers like Tiffany Fairall, the former chief curator of MCA Museum, who greenlit Ellsworth’s exhibition but resigned from the museum shortly thereafter.

Again, this seems odd.  Is a museum obligated to ensure that artwork by different artists in different exhibitions be ideologically aligned, or counterbalanced, or whatever it is Ellsworth seems to want?

Also, is it possible that a museum might not want to get drawn into what looks like a religious dispute current and former Latter-day Saints?

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In a statement, Fairall tells The Art Newspaper that her departure had no connection to the ongoing controversies at MCA Museum, and that she has been on leave since October 2023, shortly after another censorship scandal broke out at the museum.  The City of Mesa’s Arts and Culture Department, which manages and funds the museum, confirms that Fairall’s resignation went into effect in May of this year, but it could not comment further due to “threatened litigation”.

Huh. 

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In her planned show at MCA Museum, Ellsworth would have exhibited a work titled Leaving Loves Company (2011). Previously exhibited at the Phoenix Art Museum and elsewhere, it references the “handcarts” Mormons used to migrate to western states while fleeing persecution in the 19th century.

Mormonism was founded in New York State in 1830 and has been headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, since 1847. It is now widespread in several surrounding states, including Idaho and Arizona. Ellsworth’s own great-great-grandfather was the fifth president of the Mormon Church.

Ellsworth seems to lean rather heavily on her (former) Latter-day Saint bona fides.  As noted above, she is "a former Mormon who frequently critiques the religion in her work."  See also this 2010 article about her, which includes this interesting bit:

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"My work is all about ancestors," Ellsworth told a packed audience at ASUAM during a September panel discussion centered on the Biennale. "I've had issues with this history most of my life."

That history includes being raised Mormon. It also includes the fact that Ellsworth is the great-great-granddaughter of Lorenzo Snow, Mormon prophet, the fifth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and husband to 12 wives (two of whom were biological sisters). As a prophet in the Mormon Church, Snow was considered to be a visionary or seer capable of receiving divine revelations related to church doctrine. A contemporary of Joseph Smith, Lorenzo Snow was convicted and imprisoned on three counts of unlawful cohabitation in 1885 under the 1852 Edmonds Act, a federal statute outlawing polygamy. 
...
Things get even more intriguing when it's revealed that Ellsworth, no longer a practicing Mormon, is an acknowledged lesbian in a committed, long-term marital relationship with Tania Katan, a writer, playwright, and actress currently performing in a one-woman show called Saving Tania's Privates. As a direct descendant of a Mormon prophet, Ellsworth is to be revered, but, notes Ellsworth, the fact that she's openly gay has worked against her as far as the Mormon Church is concerned. "BYU [Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City] invited me to be a visiting artist there but revoked the invitation when they found out I'm queer."

Descendants of presidents of the Church "are to be revered"?  I learn something new every day.

Back to the original article:

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“My work has been shown internationally and nationally, but the most important places for it to be are predominantly Mormon communities,” Ellsworth says. “I was excited by the context of Mesa, where there are even roads named after my family members.

My great-great grandfather was the first mayor of Mesa.  There are even two roads (N Macdonald and S Macdonald) in Mesa named after him.

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The reception can sometimes be contentious—there are people who are pissed off and others who relate. But all those conversations are critical.”

Yet despite the criticality of these "conversations," Ellsworth is withdrawing her exhibit.  Odd.

And despite the supposed presence of supposed "people who are pissed off" at Ellsworth's art, the story does not include any reference to Latter-day Saints actually objecting to, or being "pissed off" at, Ellsworth's art or critique. 

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The non-profit that oversees Materializing Mormonism, the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts, was co-founded by the art critic and curator Glen Nelson to expand the presence and scholarship of Mormon art. Nelson says that the exhibition was chosen by MCA Museum through a prospectus process and that organisers were “completely unaware of Angela’s exhibition until she withdrew and we learned that more space had become available”.

“I’ve been aware of Angela’s work for years,” he adds. “I’ve written about her work, I’ve acquired her work for my own collection and I’ve helped others acquire her work. There was no pushback from us. We would have been thrilled to open the conversation.”
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Nelson emphasises that the Center for Latter-day Saint Arts has no subsidiary ties to the Mormon Church or to the City of Mesa, and he argues that Ellsworth’s proposal for constructive conversations around Mormon art is exactly aligned with the organisation’s own scope of working. He notes that Materializing Mormonism itself seeks to illustrate the diversity and breadth of artists who address Mormonism in their work and rewrite the “stereotype” of the religion as one that is primarily white and American. The exhibition brings together over 30 international artists, including the Chilean-born painter Eduardo Alvarez, the Korean American artist Gi (Ginny) Huo and the Argentine artist Susana Isabel Silva.

“We’re aware that people project onto us their feelings about Mormonism—whatever that is,” Nelson says. “We say that the non-profit exists at the intersection of divine creativity and social relevance, which might feel like a split objective but it’s not.”

This 2017 Trib article describes Nelson as "a New York artist and Latter-day Saint."  

Thanks,

-Smac

[LoudmouthMormon]

On 7/11/2024 at 1:12 PM, smac97 said:

Lousy trigger discipline.  

[bluebell]

This is such a weird story, but then again, artists are often weird.