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LuLu LoLo as Mother Cabrini with
“Mother Cabrini Hospital Bed”.
Photo: Dan Evans |
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In honor of Italian Heritage and Culture Month and in
conjunction with the performance of
her one-act play, THREE SISTERS IN SOUL: SAINT, SOLDIER,
SEAMSTRESS, LuLu LoLo created a special exhibition for the
Garibaldi-Meucci Museum in October 2004.
This exhibition celebrated the works of art that the Italian
Immigrants created in America imbued with the traditions they
brought from Italy. The exhibition concentrated on the period
of peak immigration from the turn of the century up to the
Second World War. WITH THESE OUR HANDS honored the stone
carver who sculpted the angels and other statues for the
cemetery; memorialized the ironworker who fashioned the
elaborate metal décor of many of New York City’s mansions.
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Photo: Marina Ortiz |
Through this exhibition, the crochet and embroidery of Italian
women received deserved recognition and highlighted the
artistry of the factory “piece work” that became evident in
beaded hats and other fashions.
The exhibit also paid tribute
to religious shrines of devotion large or small featuring the
Shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Grotto, Rosebank, Staten
Island, NY; and to those who created beauty while they toiled
at a daily job like Joe Milone who made his shoeshine stand a
work of art (“Joe Milone’s shoeshine furniture is as festive
as a Christmas tree, jubilant as a circus wagon. It is like a
lavish wedding cake, a baroque shrine or a super-jukebox…Yet
it is purer, more personal and simple hearted than any of
these. We must respect the enthusiasm and devotion of the man
who made it..”)—Alfred Barr, “Good Old Modern: An Intimate
Portrait of the Museum of Modern Art” p.241, Russell Lynes,
Atheneum, NY 1973.
What these immigrants did with their hands—they did with their
hearts and souls—with dignity and beauty—they made objects of
art.
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Photo: Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times |
The exhibition also featured a mixed media sculpture by LuLu
LoLo paying homage to Mother Cabrini: HANDS THAT HEALED—MOTHER
CABRINI HOSPITAL BED
Inspired by the CRIB OF THE INFANT JESUS, South
Netherlandish, Brabant, 15th century cradle from the Grand
Béguinage of Louvain, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Miniature cradles for the Christ Child were popular
devotional objects in the 15th and 16th century.
”I have always adored this bed for Baby Jesus with its
dangling bells, hand carved details, and hand embroidered
coverlet. I have incorporated my Grandmother Elizabeth
Capaldo’s crochet doilies into this work—paying homage to both
the crib and her needlework art.”—LuLu LoLo
