FASHION SENSE: NEPTUNE EXHIBIT IS ALL ABOUT STYLE
by Jordan Edwards
The Gazette
November 4, 2009
Rania Hassan and Joyce Zipperer have more in common than meets the eye. Thirty-six years separate them in age, but their art runs along the same path. Mounted on the walls of Gallery Neptune in Bethesda, the connection becomes clear."They both lean into the world of fashion," says owner Elyse Harrison. "[Hassan's] knitting represents attire. Most of the time people are knitting to make clothing. And then, of course, Joyce's shoes represent the world of shoe fashion."
Zipperer's aluminum, steel and bronze shoes look fresh, created on a whim. But the pieces are part of an evolution. The 70-year-old carved her first shoe out of stone a dozen years ago. Welding served as a transition into handmade shoes in 2001, but her fingers were already crying out for mercy.
"That became a problem for me because I started in stone carving pretty late in life," Zipperer says. "By that point, I had just about ruined my thumb joints. We all [sculptors] seem to have that problem."
Still, the aches seem to be worth it. Zipperer's work has attracted many supporters in the Washington area, including Margery Goldberg of the District's Zenith Gallery. The two have known each other for more than 25 years.
"I think her work is very clever," says Goldberg. "I've been in this business 31 years. I'm always impressed when someone comes up with something original. Joyce has definitely done that. She hasn't spent her career plagiarizing herself. She changes and she grows."
Zipperer's shoes look like as much fun as the ones Carrie Bradshaw strutted around in during "Sex and the City." Yes, they do reflect a female obsession with footwear, but their construction symbolizes something that stretches beyond a Park Avenue sidewalk.
"It's a subtle statement," Zipperer says. "I've been told my work has a lot of humor to it, but it is sort of a statement on how all of us women through history want to be in style. We'll just follow the trends, like wearing stiletto heels. We've all been through that."
Zipperer grew up in Ashland, Kansas, and didn't realize her destiny as an artist until after she dropped out of Auburn University.
"I took home economics," she recalls. "Had I realized then that I was going to end up being in the arts, I would have gone into the school of art. They had one of the best art departments at that time."
After moving to Northern Virginia in 1970, Zipperer landed a design job at U.S. News and World Report. As her career took off, the art became more than a hobby. She started out in collage and has been exhibiting pieces for 35 years. Gallery Neptune has represented her since 2005.
"Some of the materials she uses are very flexible, like the aluminum," Harrison notes. "Others are very strong materials like the bronze and welded steel. I think it's very admirable that she can take hard materials and fashion them into an object that we all know to be made of more supple materials."
Rania Hassan calls the District home, but has only lived there for nine years. Born in New York, she spent time in Dubai and went to college in Lebanon.
"I've lived in D.C. longer than I've lived anywhere, so that's why I call it home," Hassan says.
She initiated her current series of painted hands giving way to actual fibers in 2006. The forms were more vague at the start. The pieces now at Neptune feature detailed close-ups of hands. Hassan began knitting just a few years ago, but the practice comes as second nature. Her mother and grandmother crocheted and knitted tablecloths and bed sheets.
"Knitting is something that happens for so many generations," notes Hassan. "I feel like it hasn't changed in all these years. In that sense, it sort of connects the generations."
Two of the pieces at Neptune dive into more abstract territory, with material wrapped around a doorknob and disappearing into a wooden drawer.
"When you knit, you kind of talk with people or think about things," Hassan explains. "It's a way to collect all your thoughts. It's like you're writing your memoirs and then putting them away. That's the idea behind [the drawers]."
Hassan has the advantage of being married to another artist. She met fellow mixed media specialist Sean Hennessey while working as a graphic designer with the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Hennessey labored in the prop shop. When it comes to critiquing each other's work, everything is in play.
"We're totally, brutally, honest," says Hennessey. "There's no concern about hurting each other's feelings, because we know where we're coming from. We know what we're trying to do. It's very helpful."
Besides commenting on their life partnership, Hennessey observes that his wife shares something more with Zipperer than just career choice and subject matter.
"Joyce has done crocheted pieces that look like knitted pieces," he says. "So they both have this connection of that technique. People who know Joyce's work know that she's really famous for that."
Hassan isn't sure that she will make anymore painting-knitting combinations, but she plans on heading in the same direction. It's doubtful she will give up the Japanese fibers that she has grown so fond of.
"They're able to hold their form better," Hassan says. "I just like the variety and just how exclusive the fibers are. The fibers are just really special."
The work of Joyce Zipperer and Rania Hassan is on display through Nov. 14 at Gallery Neptune, 5001 Wilson Lane, Bethesda. The space is open weekly by appointment and Fridays and Saturdays from noon to 5 p.m. Call 301-718-0809 or visit galleryneptune.com.