All Monsters Are Created to Destroy, Then and Now

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - Sept. 25, 2018 - PRLog -- The Vanderbilt Republic very proudly invites you to experience "FRANKENSTEIN: KONFIDENTIAL" (https://www.frankensteinkonfidential.com/art/), a large scale installation of paintings by award-winning realist painter Hyeseung Marriage-Song, born of her collaboration with author/educator Tommy Zurhellen. The experience — contemporary meditations on the myth of the Golem, with creative/technical direction and projection design by George Del Barrio – opens at 6p Thursday 15 November 2018 and will be on view to the public through Sunday 18 November 2018 at Gowanus Loft, a project space dedicated to the conception and production of immersive creative encounters by commission, collaboration, or special arrangement. This will be Ms. Marriage-Song's 1^st exhibition at the Loft.

2018 marks the bi-centennial of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Inspired by the original text, Zurhellen researched Jewish history and German folklore, paying particular attention to the myth of the Golem — there are many differing tales on how the Golem was brought to life and afterward controlled. In Jewish folklore, a rabbi made the Golem: according to Moment Magazine, "the golem is a highly mutable metaphor with seemingly limitless symbolism. It can be victim or villain, Jew or non-Jew, man or woman—or sometimes both. Over the centuries it has been used to connote war, community, isolation, hope and despair." Knowing that this recasts how the scientist created/controlled Frankenstein, Zurhellen stated, "What is the worth of a human life, what makes us human? What are my obligations as a human to my fellow humans?"

These cultural and historical influences, contrasting with Shelley's original characters (now set in Nazi Germany during World War II), made for a complex narrative. Hyeseung Marriage-Song joined as co-collaborator of the Frankenstein: Konfidential project and took Zurhellen's manuscript as a first point of inspiration. Meditating on the lasting cultural legacy of Mary Shelley's classic text and the rich and varied myth of the Golem, Marriage-Song proceeded to create powerful, contemporary interpretations with swirling freeform, fragmented, figurative representations on large scale canvases. "Art should always draw from the inner life," Marriage-Song stated. "This work is very open, very movement-based, unresolved and resolving, to reflect a complicated, and I think more realistic, view about humans." She continued, "The idea is that we are all Golem, both creators and destroyers, and the Promethean fire is inside of us: it is what makes us human."

"FRANKENSTEIN: KONFIDENTIAL" opens at 6p Thursday 15 November at Gowanus Loft (61 9^th Street Brooklyn 11215). It will run through Sunday November 18, with weekend public gallery hours from 11a-7p. For catalogue information or to schedule a private gallery visit, please contact george@vanderbiltrepublic.com.


ABOUT THE VANDERBILT REPUBLIC
The Vanderbilt Republic (VR, est. 2008) is a creative/production agency formed to catalyze the impact of artistic expression in all modes. Based in Brooklyn, VR sees artists as leaders, activists, and agents for positive change. Through our work with the creative diaspora, the agency offers boutique solutions in transmedia creative production, design & direction, artist representation, and landscape projection design. George Del Barrio is VR's Creative Director × Executive Producer — vanderbiltrepublic.com

ABOUT HYESEUNG MARRIAGE-SONG
Hyeseung Marriage-Song is an award-winning artist based in Brooklyn. With a background in philosophy and writing, she is known for oil paintings and drawings. A Princeton graduate, she studied at Harvard and The Water Street Atelier. Her work has been exhibited around the world and is held in private collections in several countries — hmarriage-song.com

ABOUT TOMMY ZURHELLEN
Tommy Zurhellen is a professor of creative writing at Marist College. He is the author of the award-winning Messiah Trilogy, the host of the iTunes podcast FICTION SCHOOL, which focuses on writing and the writers' lives, the writer of ZERO BLOG, and the creator of a narrative that captures veterans' stories. Right now he is participating in the acclaimed Show & Tell series.  — tommyzurhellen.com