In recent years, both Emily Strange and Allison McGovney have created artwork rooted in loss, each having experienced the death of a close friend as a result of the ongoing opioid epidemic.
This sense of grief reverberates throughout “To: The Other Side,” a new exhibit co-curated by the pair, resonating most strongly in a series of letters penned by friends and family members and directed towards loved ones who died as a result of opioid addiction. Gathered on the west wall in the rear of the exhibit, the installation has a way of shifting the weight of everything else around it, making the room feel somehow heavier after you spend some time absorbing the letters.
“Dearest Skylar,” begins one typed letter from a father to his late daughter. “Everyday. Every Single Day, I think about you. I miss you. I love you. I want to hug my little girl again. I want to sing songs with you again. I want to go back to when you were our little Tinkerbell.”
Both Strange and McGovern said the opioid epidemic has for too long taken place in silence, its deep, wide-ranging impact felt by many in the community but rarely discussed with needed openness.
“I’ve put up the needle instillation in several places, and people will come up to me and say, ‘I had no idea,’” Strange said of a narrow, prison-like room lined with parallel walls of syringes. “It’s like one in three people has no idea about [the opioid epidemic]. People don’t know seven people die a day, or that there are more than 20 overdoses a day. And that’s just in Columbus. And I don’t think people are aware of the mental health issues that come behind addiction. Or how it impacts friends and family.”
“And I think a big part of it, too, is there’s still a shame that goes with addiction,” said McGovney, who joined Strange for an early July interview at All People Arts, where the exhibit will remain on display through July 20. (A closing reception is set to take place from 5-8 p.m. on Saturday, July 15.) “It’s something people don’t want to talk about. Even if they’ve lost a loved one, they don’t want to say it was from an overdose. But if we don’t speak up and get the word out to let people know this is a problem, it’s just going to keep happening.”
“To: The Other Side,” serves foremost as a conversation starter, its collected paintings and installations offering a glimpse into everything from the mental prison of addiction to the complex emotions evoked by the grieving process.
Despite the synergy on display between their works – echoed in everything from the subject matter to the color palette employed – Strange and McGovney were not previously aware of one another, first trading emails after being paired by the gallery for the exhibit.
“The first thing I remember writing was, ‘Well, what have you gone through? What’s your deal? What’s your story?’ And I felt like I came at her kind of strong,” Strange said, and laughed. “But I wanted to make sure I knew what she had gone through, so I could know that we would mesh.”
Through a volley of long emails, the two quickly learned they had much in common, both having dealt with the death of a best friend as a result of opioids.
Three years ago this October, McGovney’s childhood friend, Skylar, died of an overdose – a loss that had a radical impact on every part of McGovney’s life, including her art practice. “Once I lost Skylar, everything changed, and I could never look at any part of my life the same, and especially art,” she said. “Everything I’ve made since has surrounded that experience and how I’ve dealt with it.”
Initially, this consisted of efforts to produce a realistic portrait of Skylar, which gradually gave way to a more impressionistic approach, such as a painting where a tearful, carefully detailed eye is surrounded by wild scribbles meant to echo the confusion and loneliness that can accompany myriad stages of grief.
Strange experienced a similar loss when her best friend, Rel, died of suicide in the midst of a heroin addiction 10 years ago. At the time, Strange was also using, and Rel’s death eventually served as a catalyst for her to become sober. “When my best friend died, that’s when I created this installation,” Strange said of the needle room, which includes a single wall filled floor to ceiling with tally marks – a recurring theme in the artist’s work that she traced to her practice of marking each sober day. “I was so upset with everybody, and I was still using and really didn’t want to live. It was like, ‘Oh well, I’ll just die with her.’ But then I went and got sober, because I knew that’s not what she would want for me. … And so, this installation was inspired by her, but also the struggle of getting sober. When you’re in that situation, you don’t know if you’re going to live or die. You’re in a prison, and you’re just checking off the days.”
Over time, both McGovney and Stange have noticed a gradual healing taking place within their work. More recently, McGovney has created paintings that at least attempt to reconcile the cycle of grief and renewal. Strange, meanwhile, said even her decade-old needle installation has started to take on new meaning, evolving from an intensely personal narrative – “The first time I put it up, it was about me overcoming,” she said – to something more universal.
“It’s started to change and become a more educational piece,” Strange said. “Now, when I put it up, it’s to get people more aware of the situation and how people are struggling. So my perspective on it has changed, but it still takes a lot out of me when I’m putting it up, because I’m looking at the needles and having flashbacks to everything that happened. … It’s a big part of my life, and it’s not something I want to forget or block out. I’m always going to be using my art to let people who are struggling know that there are people out there for you.”
