Flight Path
Solo show, Oconee Gallery, University of North Georgia
September 6 - October 11, 2017
The boundless freedom of a bird’s flight knows no borders, encounters no walls. And from a bird’s eye view, a group of people undertaking their own form of flight may appear as an abstract shape: a mass of forms and colors blending into a whole. Hope takes shape in this movement. My work explores the role of hope in the human condition and considers, with interest and wonder, those who move along uncertain paths, toward unknowable futures.
As my work evolves, I find that I am heavily influenced by the current events in both my country and our world. Walls. Wars. Migration. Refugees. People fleeing from persecution, famine, floods, all sorts of catastrophic events. Fear, ignorance, intolerance, acts of god, acts of man all fuel this movement, this displacement.
And then there’s hope. Where does it fit in? Where and how does hope exist? What sustains it? Where does it end?
I am especially interested in reflecting the hope that exists, however fragile, among such individuals, families, and communities with limited opportunities. Marginalized people, the faceless, those without a voice. I look with interest and wonder at those places where hope coexists with hopelessness, welcome but seemingly out of place. In such circumstances the connections to hope may appear tenuous. But they are there and plainly visible to those who look.
The Hope Series began in 2013 while living in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Focusing on a small community of workers living in the Shabiya area of Abu Dhabi, I created six paintings for a group exhibition. The show was held at Ghaf Gallery in Abu Dhabi then travelled to the Mattar Gallery in Dubai in April, 2013.
2013 Shabiya Exhibition, United Arab Emirates
Juxtaposed against the glittering backdrop of Abu Dhabi, near the bustling industrial area of Mussafah, lies Shabiya 12, where wealth and poverty touch but don’t overlap. Shabiya cannot survive the vision of a modern Abu Dhabi. The ground is destined for better things; the people may not be so lucky.
Uncertainty. Eviction. Demolition.
Working on the margins of Abu Dhabi, the people of Shabiya must be moved aside to make way for the future. But they did not decide their fate. The old, decaying buildings are one thing. The people are another.
Uncertainty. Rumors. Fear.
Where will I go? Who, if anyone, will help? Where will my family live? I have an infant daughter.
Uncertainty. Movement. Money.
My doors both represent and hide the reality of Shabiya. The people behind them are a faceless community. Too quiet to be heard. The figures are Shabiya’s emotions, dreams, situations. Such situations are not specific to any region or class. They are all around us, in every corner of the world. Some people have more opportunity than others. But all can have hope. Hope lifts people up, gives wing to spirits. Will the tenuous connections of hope be enough to keep them aloft? Or will they fall back to Earth under the weight of their reality?
Uncertainty. Hope. Shabiya.
JEANNE GOLIGHTLY (WHATLEY) is an artist and founder of caravangalleries.com. She holds a BFA in studio art/painting with minors in art history and weaving & textiles from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Jeanne has lived and worked in the U.S., Germany, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi. In 2014, her family settled in Athens, GA, where she continues to explore the subject of hope through her paintings.
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Flight Path
Solo show, Oconee Gallery, University of North Georgia
September 6 - October 11, 2017
The boundless freedom of a bird’s flight knows no borders, encounters no walls. And from a bird’s eye view, a group of people undertaking their own form of flight may appear as an abstract shape: a mass of forms and colors blending into a whole. Hope takes shape in this movement. My work explores the role of hope in the human condition and considers, with interest and wonder, those who move along uncertain paths, toward unknowable futures.
As my work evolves, I find that I am heavily influenced by the current events in both my country and our world. Walls. Wars. Migration. Refugees. People fleeing from persecution, famine, floods, all sorts of catastrophic events. Fear, ignorance, intolerance, acts of god, acts of man all fuel this movement, this displacement.
And then there’s hope. Where does it fit in? Where and how does hope exist? What sustains it? Where does it end?
I am especially interested in reflecting the hope that exists, however fragile, among such individuals, families, and communities with limited opportunities. Marginalized people, the faceless, those without a voice. I look with interest and wonder at those places where hope coexists with hopelessness, welcome but seemingly out of place. In such circumstances the connections to hope may appear tenuous. But they are there and plainly visible to those who look.
The Hope Series began in 2013 while living in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Focusing on a small community of workers living in the Shabiya area of Abu Dhabi, I created six paintings for a group exhibition. The show was held at Ghaf Gallery in Abu Dhabi then travelled to the Mattar Gallery in Dubai in April, 2013.
2013 Shabiya Exhibition, United Arab Emirates
Juxtaposed against the glittering backdrop of Abu Dhabi, near the bustling industrial area of Mussafah, lies Shabiya 12, where wealth and poverty touch but don’t overlap. Shabiya cannot survive the vision of a modern Abu Dhabi. The ground is destined for better things; the people may not be so lucky.
Uncertainty. Eviction. Demolition.
Working on the margins of Abu Dhabi, the people of Shabiya must be moved aside to make way for the future. But they did not decide their fate. The old, decaying buildings are one thing. The people are another.
Uncertainty. Rumors. Fear.
Where will I go? Who, if anyone, will help? Where will my family live? I have an infant daughter.
Uncertainty. Movement. Money.
My doors both represent and hide the reality of Shabiya. The people behind them are a faceless community. Too quiet to be heard. The figures are Shabiya’s emotions, dreams, situations. Such situations are not specific to any region or class. They are all around us, in every corner of the world. Some people have more opportunity than others. But all can have hope. Hope lifts people up, gives wing to spirits. Will the tenuous connections of hope be enough to keep them aloft? Or will they fall back to Earth under the weight of their reality?
Uncertainty. Hope. Shabiya.
JEANNE GOLIGHTLY (WHATLEY) is an artist and founder of caravangalleries.com. She holds a BFA in studio art/painting with minors in art history and weaving & textiles from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. Jeanne has lived and worked in the U.S., Germany, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi. In 2014, her family settled in Athens, GA, where she continues to explore the subject of hope through her paintings.
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