Located on York Blvd between Ave 50 and 51st in Highland Park the Hummingbird Collective functions as both a medicinal marijuana club and an art gallery. The space is divided into two halves: the first half, open to the public, is their art gallery and front desk while the walled off second part is open to patients looking for medicine. In their own words, the Hummingbird Collective “is a community service oriented premoratorium collective and art gallery that is dedicated to promoting kindness and wellbeing.” T.H.C. opens their gallery wall space to any artist in the community who would like a place to expose their work. An artist must first give a sample of their work and if approved the artist receives wall space for an average of two weeks. Currently, T.H.C. is focusing on paintings.
The paintings are mostly done on non-traditional materials. Materials range from wooden window sills, free hanging canvas, paper mache and found wooden pieces instead of canvas bordered with wood. The works cover a diversity of themes and aesthetic endeavors. One artist focuses on painting cartoon skeletons, perhaps in the spirit of Day of the Dead celebrations that will take place shortly. Others have painted realist landscapes and portraits. T.H.C. has one permanent piece situated right at the entrance to the clinic. This portrait was done using spray paint and adapts certain graffiti aesthetics. The portrait is a mix between surrealist and realist strategies. The actual features on the woman are close to reality, however the colors utilized to paint her skin and hair are blue and a bright orange. And of course a small hummingbird is featured flying right above her flower decorated hair curls.
As much as T.H.C. wants to promote community and give everyone a chance to show their work, not every painter gets so lucky. With business in mind T.H.C. chose to deny one specific artist their wall space. These paintings were stacked behind several wooden planks lying on the floor. When I began asking the workers about their favorite works they immediately showed me these censored and hidden paintings. Highly critical and political these three paintings were too offensive for the customers at Hummingbird. The paintings Diet of a Celebrity, The Surgeon General’s Wife and Still Beautiful are all gorgeous paintings done using very unique brush strokes and color palettes. With strong images that are sure to get your attention and get gears grinding in your head perhaps they were too serious for the patients exiting the clinic. T.H.C.’s motto “it’s always a beautiful day at the Hummingbird Collective” overpowered the intentions of this specific artist. To T.H.C.’s respect they still showed them to me. They were very honest about their motives for taking them down, but still communicated a deep respect for both the aesthetics of the paintings and their critical message.
Still Beautiful
Diet of a Celebrity
Every two weeks the Hummingbird Collective will change their artwork by theme, materials, medium or special events. On October 24th they will be opening a new show featuring graffiti artists from Los Angeles. They will be hosting an official gallery opening with graffiti works on canvas and wood. Their motive behind this project is to promote an appreciation for graffiti artwork which is often times forgotten and regarded as “low-brow” art. T.H.C. believes graffiti is one of the freest and most fundamental pieces of urban life and would like to celebrate its existence and its artists.
The Hummingbird Collective pleases its customers with the community’s artwork presented on their walls. In addition to medicinal marijuana their artwork is sure to serve as medicine as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment