Syracuse artists reflect on trauma and religion in new ArtRage Gallery exhibition

ArtRage Gallery’s new exhibition “Life/AfterLife…Do You Have A Plan?” features work by Pam McLaughlin and Vykky Ebner, two Syracuse artists who draw heavily upon personal experiences.

McLaughlin speaks of surviving physical and mental abuse inflicted by her parents, of how living in a household fixated on religious dogma and children being submissive created feelings of guilt and shame for her.

Ebner recounts talking to an evangelical Christian when she was a teenager. She was told that she would go to hell if she didn’t embrace particular religious beliefs. Later, at age 35, she dealt with a boyfriend’s physical abuse and sought refuge at Vera House.

Both artists developed a visual idiom to discuss struggles in life and their paths to resilience and personal growth.

McLaughlin, for example, says she’s influenced by Marcel Duchamp, a well- known French artist associated with Cubism, Dada and the birth of conceptual art, and contemporary artists like Sarah Sze. She uses everyday objects like cups, string and tape in her artworks.

In a piece like “Good Little Girl,” McLaughlin places various objects in a beat-up suitcase: baby shoes, latex, Kennedy half dollars, small metal objects and others. She’s packing away things no longer useful in her life.

An incisive text accompanies the artwork. There McLaughlin writes of using “latex and paint to evoke bloody/fresh viscera which represents both the toxicity my parents produced and my anger at the abuse my little self endured.” And she refers to a cycle of judgement and punishment closely connected to her parents’ belief in Roman Catholicism.

Other works present McLaughlin’s views on women’s role in traditional marriages; she speaks of a denial of autonomy. In “They Honored and Obeyed,” the artist works with faux cherries, paint, Styrofoam, paint, a skirt and the arms of over a dozen Barbie dolls.

Elsewhere, “Last Rites (Life)” references McLaughlin’s rejection of the notion of an after life and her emphasis on “centering power in the present, in the body and in natural cycles of life and death.” She created a wall cabinet decorated with found objects, moss, bronze and a Barbie doll whose head is covered with small rubber snakes.

A companion piece, “Last Rites (After Life),” explores similar themes and also uses the format of a wall cabinet. Here, McLaughlin combines artificial flowers, glass, cake topper, found objects and figures depicting a bride and groom.

Finally, “Forgiveness (An Experiment)” conveys the ambivalence McLaughlin feels about forgiving her parents. She thinks about forgiveness but says that process isn’t completed yet. In the artwork, she’s constructed cyst-like forms filled with hair, teeth and nails and placed them under a cloche, a bell-shaped glass dome. The forms are ugly but isolated; the artist sees them as symbolic of what she’s endured.

Ebner, meanwhile, creates artworks employing paint, ink and collage. She views art as a subtle and valuable tool of communication, as a way of exploring difficult subjects.

Among other things, she’s dealt with a schizoaffective disorder, with the impact of a psychotic break as a young adult and with the stigma associated with mental illness.

In “The Basement,” she recalls a conversation that took place when she was 23 years old. In a basement, a pastor berated her for thinking about leaving a congregation and asked why she took psychiatric medications.

Ebner doesn’t portray that conversation realistically. Rather, she depicts herself as a young adult in close proximity to a menacing object, a sperm whale’s jawbone. The work expresses a visual pun; jawboning connotes an attempt to persuade another person by virtue of one’s experience or authority.

“A Question” refers to multiple conversations Ebner had with a person who said she was going to hell for not believing in God.

Here the artist has depicted a female figure and added a border inscribed with these words: “Do you still tell other people they’re going to hell or was that just me?” Clearly, Ebner isn’t looking for an actual response; the question is defiant and provocative.

And “Gadarenes” reflects on the boyfriend, a physics doctoral student, who was abusive. In the work, three pigs are running along. Each has an equation penetrating its hide. Ebner is drawing on a Biblical narrative in which Jesus Christ meets a man possessed by demons who ask that they not be banished into an abyss. At that point, Jesus Christ sends the demons into a group of wild pigs who ran off a cliff and are drowned.

Ebner’s other works in the show include a piece depicting skulls and a raven and communicating a direct message: death comes for all of us.

Beyond that, “Joy,” a digital photo, shows bottles, that held prescriptions, arranged to form three letters—the word joy. She has talked about the role medication has played in helping to stabilize her life.

Her pieces, and those created by McLaughlin, build an exhibition that’s linked to the lives they’ve lived. Yet, the show has other implications. On one hand, it’s not being staged to persuade viewers to follow a particular belief system. On the other, it challenges them to examine their own beliefs.

Beyond that, the show, in an indirect manner, reflects on how people deal with adversity in their lives. That’s an important aspect of “Life/Afterlife…Do You Have A Plan?”

The exhibit is on display through July 19, 2025 at ArtRage, 505 Hawley Ave. The gallery is open from 2-6 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and on Saturdays from noon to 4 p.m.

There’s no admission charge. For more information, call 315-218-5711 or access artragegallery.org.

Carl Mellor covered visual arts for the Syracuse New Times from 1994 through 2019. He continues to write about exhibitions and artists in the Syracuse area.