Elizabeth Huey Presents “The Source” at Archer

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

The Archer School for Girls’ intimate, student-run Eastern Star Gallery hosted an opening for artist Elizabeth Huey on Oct. 24, displaying her new exhibition “The Source.”

One of the gallery’s directors, student Isabel Kuh, hosted a Q&A with Huey, who shared that some of the work drew inspiration from Archer itself.

The pieces are meant to examine the role of widowed women in the school’s Freemason history, highlighting the artist’s “interest in the acknowledgment of unknown histories and accomplishments of women.”

Huey created “Maypole,” a piece that connects drawings, paintings and photographs with ribbon, after visiting Archer and seeing the school’s own ribbon-strung maypole—set up on the front lawn as part of a spring tradition that marks the end of each school year with a colorful maypole dance.

“I had the opportunity to lay down on the grass looking up at the colored ribbons against the sky,” Huey said of her visit to the school. “I collected images of women dancing and communing during maypole festivities throughout time … [and] I considered how ritual and movement complement the creative process.”

A second painting, “So Mote It Be,” “loosely references the building’s early history as a home for the widows and wives of Freemansons,” she explained.

“The Source” as a whole explores themes of the ritual and secrecy among women of history.

The exhibition’s eponymous painting is inspired by the story of Father Yod, a health food restaurateur, psychedelic rocker and cult founder whose spiritual commune in the Hollywood Hills attracted runaway women in the 1960s and ’70s.

Huey utilized the center of Eastern Star’s space for a “meditative rock garden,” featuring rocks made of plaster and pieces of news covered and reworked. At the opening, gallery-goers paused to sit on the rocks as they took in the rest of the exhibition.

Huey, a Virginia native who now lives and works in Los Angeles after 15 years in New York, spoke glowingly of her collaboration with Archer students.

“The girls visited the studio six weeks before the show opened and we discussed the curation together,” she shared with the Palisadian-Post. “Their suggestions were thoughtful and they were adept at considering both the content and form. It was a pleasure to work with them.”

“The Source” will be on display at the Eastern Star Gallery through Nov. 17.