{"id":15176,"date":"2020-02-09T12:37:59","date_gmt":"2020-02-09T17:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=15176"},"modified":"2020-02-09T12:37:59","modified_gmt":"2020-02-09T17:37:59","slug":"meredith-stern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2020\/02\/09\/meredith-stern\/","title":{"rendered":"Meredith Stern\u2019s \u2018Cooperation Cats\u2019 Show How We Can Thrive Together"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI really wanted to highlight the strength of the human condition. When we work together we\u2019re stronger,\u201d Meredith Stern<\/a> says of her exhibition \u201cCooperation Cats: 10 years, 20 prints\u201d at AS220\u2019s Project Space<\/a>, 93 Mathewson St., Providence, from Feb. 1 to 29.<\/p>\n

The show features 20 hand-printed, relief-cut images\u2014linocuts sometimes with woodcut layers or spray-paint\u2014of cats as people collaborating, \u201cfrom building together to eating dinner together, protesting, engaged in various social actions.\u201d (The exhibition also includes her porcelain ceramic mugs, teapots and jugs as 32 offset prints from her 2016 and \u201917 series illustrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.)<\/p>\n

\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Dynamic Dusting” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The series was partly inspired by a stay in Brooklyn with the artist Josh MacPhee of the Just Seeds activist printmaking cooperative, of which Stern is a member. A 10-year-old girl spilled something on the floor. MacPhee got a broom and the girl grabbed a dustpan. \u201cTogether they cleaned up the mess,\u201d Stern recalls. \u201cI just realized I hadn\u2019t seen that before. \u2026 This is a perfect example of a small way in which the idea of mutual aid and cooperation happens in a normalized way. If we\u2019re going to think about mutual aid and what it means to thrive together, it comes down to the very smallest of acts\u2014cleaning up together.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it was a way to model that social change comes not only through \u201cmass actions and large movements, it\u2019s about changing things on a small level,\u201d Stern says. \u201cAlso, I think that\u2019s a way we can not feel totally overwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cats became her stand-ins for people because \u201cI wanted to highlight social issues without the specificity of identity,\u201d the Providence artist says. Also, \u201ccats are fiercely independent, but do also rely on us when we\u2019re cohabitating to feed them. The relationship between the individual and the collective is evident in our relationship with cats.\u201d And, well, Stern is just a fan, especially of her two kitties\u2014Gandalf and Zorro.<\/p>\n

\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Kitten Kitchen Cooperation” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the first prints in the \u201cCooperation Cats\u201d series was her best selling print of the year when she made it. Which got her thinking that \u201cmaybe I can put cats together with social justice and it\u2019s not a ridiculous thing. I realized maybe it was a way to be more subtle and draw people into the issue. \u2026 It was a way to play with collaboration in less didactic ways,\u201d Stern says. \u201cPeople who like cats were also entering into the work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prints in the \u201cCooperation Cats\u201d series are reduction prints\u2014in which each of the three to nine layers of color are printed from the same block as it\u2019s carved away more and more. The artworks depict cat-people foraging for mushrooms, mending a quilt, paddling a canoe, planting seedlings, harvesting grain, washing dishes, shoveling out the walkway of their home after a snowstorm. A cat lies in bed after giving birth to two kittens with the help of a midwife and doula. Two parent-cats and their kitten (in a diaper) make challah bread. A parent-cat combs a child-cat\u2019s hair. Carpenter-cats frame the roof of a barn they are building with a wood beam that reads: \u201cWe build a new world together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of calling out of the injustices of the world,\u201d Stern says. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot easier to call out what is wrong or what the injustices are than to celebrate what is or what could be, to show an alternative.\u201d \u201cCooperation Cats\u201d grew out of a desire to find \u201ca way to model mutual aid in a way that makes people think I could do that? \u2026 When people have a model for something it\u2019s easier to envision it and then be it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don’t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Midwifery Kitties” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Winter Wonderland” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, \u201cCooperation Cats” ceramics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, \u201cCooperation Cats” ceramics.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Winter Wonderland” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Communal Dinner” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Hallah!” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Intergenerational Stroll” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Home Groom” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Meredith<\/a>
Meredith Stern, “Carpenter Cats” relief print from her \u201cCooperation Cats” series.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI really wanted to highlight the strength of the human condition. When we work together we\u2019re stronger,\u201d Meredith Stern says of her exhibition \u201cCooperation Cats: 10 years, 20 prints\u201d at AS220\u2019s Project Space, 93 Mathewson St., Providence, from Feb. 1 to 29. The show features 20 hand-printed, relief-cut images\u2014linocuts sometimes with woodcut layers or spray-paint\u2014of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15195,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[100],"tags":[251,693,692,72],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15176"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15197,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176\/revisions\/15197"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}