been alive for more than thirty years and I, too, have thought
many ugly things, 2022, 8 x 8 inches
Contributed by Sarah Friedman / Liz Scheer’s “Nocturama,” now up at Galerie Shibumi, is a trippy journey into multimedia works that combine everyday objects, religious texts, and human emotions. The style of the vignettes evokes Mexican votive paintings, conjuring the viewer’s longing for coherent narrative. However, the enigmatic captions do not always seem to explain the scenes they are paired with. This discordance between the verbal and the visual invites viewers to derive their own meaning from the ineffable, and to reflect on the narratives they rely on to do so. Ultimately, Scheer’s exhibition explores the ways in which people craft meaning from the world around them – whether through religion, art, astronomy, or philosophy – and how highly personal interpretations can result in both intimacy with others and a sense of profound isolation.
men,” she said. “It doesn’t look right,” 2023 , gouache and stickers on wood panel, 12 x 12 inches
Having met Scheer during our time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where both of us were pursuing doctoral degrees in literary studies, I cannot help but see our own experiences illuminated in these works. Academia, especially the humanities, generates a compulsion to unearth hidden meanings and patterns, sometimes in texts that have been analyzed for centuries by scholars but abandoned by everyone else. As Scheer’s work suggests, there is something deeply satisfying about convincing oneself that there is meaning in the depths, whether or not anyone else will ever see it. The slight smile on the face of the straitjacketed man in I imagine he meant to disturb me and the larger one on that of the man in It is my duty to point out the pattern, even if there is no pattern at all reflect the rewards that come from seeing the truth in what nobody else can see.
Scheer also alludes to the ways in which intellectual journeys can verge on dangerous introversion. The tired eyes on the face of the figure in His roommate or girlfriend told us we could not stay search for human connection. As this figure looks out from behind the tree, clad in an outfit with patterns evoking recreational activities that tend to bring people together – football, tennis, ice skating – you get the sense that this is someone whose intellectual experiences have produced wilderness-bound insanity. Similarly, the woman in How is a condemned person supposed to behave? smiles as she eats her egg, staring out the window at what appears to be fire, apparently ignoring the fire within her own space. She feels safe in her isolation even though she is about to burn.
In her works containing multiple figures, Scheer examines how collective intellectual and spiritual experiences that feel beautiful can also be perilous. For example, Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes presents a tableau of people (plus a dog) from all walks of life together in a jungle or forest. The ambiguity of the scene leaves us wondering whether the figures are genuinely at ease or party to some collective delusion that promises comfort but threatens to unravel. The caption betrays the possibility that there is jeopardy within this social space that should not be ignored.
“Nocturama” is a deeply introspective body of work that speaks to the ways in which we seek answers in a world that doesn’t always offer them. It celebrates the beauty of intellectual and emotional exploration, acknowledging both its joys and its risks while urging us to continue the search for understanding even when the answers remain out of reach.
“Liz Scheer: Nocturama,” Galerie Shibumi, 13 Market Street, New York, NY. Through November 24, 2024.
About the author: Sarah Friedman holds a Ph.D in English from The University of Wisconsin Madison. Her work has appeared in Essays in Medieval Studies and Cambridge University’s Special Collections blog.
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Thank you so much for publishing my review!