“Captive.” Photos by Chris Autio. All images © Beth Cavener, courtesy of Carpenters Workshop Gallery, shared with permission
In the 6th century B.C.E., Aesop wrote more than 700 fables conveying moral messages through animal characters. Fifty-one of these featured a sly fox, usually characterized as both intelligent and deceptive, often conning other animals. Foxes have long symbolized adaptability, cunning, stealth, and deceit, providing us with a way to understand our own values, behaviors, and actions. In Beth Cavener’s “Trust Me,” a vulpine creature bathed in dark shadow crouches as if poised to leap from its vertical surface, peering determinately ahead. Its title, both an invitation and a warning, illuminates the vulnerability it requires to those who accept.
In her latest body of work, which goes on view in Trust at Carpenters Workshop Gallery next month, Cavener (previously) delves into the nuances and complexities of what it means to trust. Drawing on emotional personal experiences and social and cultural upheavals, from the pandemic to political divisiveness, the artist invokes the animal world as a means to reestablish bonds with one another through empathy and compassion.
Cavener begins each piece by creating a detailed maquette, or scale model, which she then translates into formidable, full-size works over the next six to eight months. Each piece is sculpted by hand, then hollowed out, cut into parts, fired, and reassembled. The cyclical process of creation, destruction, and restoration evokes the significance of disassembling and rebuilding the foundations that make it possible for society to not only function but thrive. In Trust, the artist invites us to more closely examine our own experiences of reliability, fear, betrayal, and hope.
In “Captive,” for example, a pony bites into its back to reveal tiger stripes underneath. And “Shards,” a focal point of the exhibition, takes the form of a life-size male lion sculpted from 2,800 pounds of clay. A majestic symbol of power, strength, and dignity, the massive cat is depicted with its head hanging low, vitality draining and bones protruding from its emaciated body. The piece was reassembled from thousands of shattered pieces, representing the painstaking and intimate labor required to instill hope and mend what may appear irreparable.
Trust runs September 12 to November 4 in Los Angeles, in collaboration with Jason Jacques Gallery. Find more on Cavener’s website and Instagram.
“Trust Me”
“G.O.A.T”
Detail of “G.O.A.T”
“Shards”
Detail of “Trust Me”
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