RELISH | relinquish

2022

In RELISH | relinquish, one woman’s experience living with late-stage Alzheimer’s dementia is connected to the work of two women artists who use mixed-media, film and photography to evoke story. This exhibition is a multi-layered, collaborative, and interpretive look at how the language of artmaking resides in and arises from a deep, inner world of imagination and memory.

Mixed-media artist, Karen Fisher and filmmaker/photographer, Gayle Nosal spent two months with Rosie Monnin in the fall of 2021. Rosie painted, danced, and sang in Karen’s studio. She collected leaves and whistled in nearby parks. When friends and family visited Rosie, Karen and Gayle observed and connected to Rosie’s past. Sometimes we sat in silence beside Rosie and gathered ambiguity. Rosie carried with her a green-tinted prism, bunches of leaves, and beaded necklaces that became further windows into her world. Though Rosie’s verbal communications had lessened, her abstract expressions of color, her playful spontaneity, and complex emotionality became powerful invitations for Karen and Gayle to meet Rosie in her world of possibilities.

RELISH | relinquish, at its essence, asserts a new form of consciousness about what it can mean to bring creative care to those living with Alzheimer’s dementia. By offering the viewer an opportunity to learn about the complex and rich experience of someone living with Alzheimer’s dementia, we hope that this exhibition will fuel compassion and promote better support for those living with dementia, their family caregivers and their broader circle of support.