Eileen Weitzman

Eileen Weitzman, Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall, 2017, acrylic, fabric, papier mâché, clay, found objects; 68 x 45 x 25 in.

Eileen Weitzman’s sculptures unleash power even as they critique it. Guess Who’s Coming for Dinner, Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall, and I Only Have Eyes for You are mixed media and papier-mâché juggernauts that chart thorny power struggles around social issues. She keeps adding legs, arms, platforms, houses, cars, found objects, stuffed pieces of fabric, plastic flowers, pictures, and toys—each one screaming to be noticed—until each piece is just overwhelming enough. With all the vibrant pattern and inventive buttressing, there’s wire and balance and core structural issues to worry about. That it all holds together expresses hope.

Fly Me to the Moon, a figurative and realistic work, concerns a two-headed woman in prison. The hanging, barred box makes a Looney Toons mockery of a jail cell, of attempted control and of resistance and escape. Weitzman’s art holds the floor, it steals the scene along with all the exclamation points. But like the best sugar highs her work completes itself with a sobering: “When will this all end?”

Part of Passing Bittersweet, a 2020 exhibition at the Williams Center Gallery. Find more of Eileen Weitzman’s work on her website.