The meaning of the show's title is hard to pinpoint. As Goldstein herself suggests in the statement she has prepared for the show, it's open to interpretation. One obvious reference is the juxtaposition of disparate images that intersect -- metaphorically speaking, anyway -- in her collages.
Goldstein begins the process by gathering up old printed or otherwise marked papers -- some dating back to the eighteenth century, but most of it dating from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period that marks the beginnings of mass-printing. Every kind of printed matter imaginable is used: stamps, stock certificates, letters, newsprint, illustrations from books and periodicals. Goldstein then cuts and pastes the papers in such a way as to recast the original meaning of the found imagery and thus subvert it to her artistic will. The resulting tableaux are theatrical narrative scenes.
In most of these works, Goldstein places the figure in the landscape, a very traditional idea. This figure-to-ground relationship is revealed even in those pieces in which there are no literal references to nature, as in "Temptation" (seen above). Here the background, which could be the sky, is actually something totally abstract, since it's been made of a fragment of commercially dyed paper, the kind of thing commonly used as endpapers in old books.
The overall presentation of the show is very nice, which is fairly unusual for Edge. The diminutive collages are hanging at eye level in a regular rhythm, evenly spaced on the walls. They are identically framed, with creamy white mats and wooden frames that set off the muted tones preferred by the artist.
The thoughtful and lovely Intersections closes on Sunday.
