On Thursday, August 9^th, Charlie Brouwer’s Now I Lay Me… opened at whitespace gallery.  Wouldn’t It Be Grand?, Brouwer’s over-sized grand piano installation, greeted visitors as they made their way up the gravel driveway as one of the focal points of the evening.  Equally impressive was the 14-foot tall installation of ladders ascending up into the skylights of the first room of the gallery. The piece entitled Now I Lay Me… is composed of 30 orchard ladders that cradle a resting figure.  Frank Levering, owner of a 100-year-old family orchard in Arat, VA, donated the antique ladders to Charlie Brouwer for use in temporary exhibitions.  As a result, Charlie gives new life and meaning to these artifacts.

The show is also comprised of 30 wash and grease pencil drawings which take the viewer on a tour of the artist’s childhood memories up until the present.  The ladder is a common motif throughout representing the idea of transcendence and reaching for another level of being and understanding.  This concept is manifested in the 3-foot tall sculpture, Backpack for the Journey. Although it is poised on a pedestal in the middle of the second gallery room, it is a portable work of art that the Charlie Brouwer actually wore on his back during an art fair.  Demonstrating the potential future direction of public art, he was literally bringing art to each person he encountered while wearing the piece on his back.

Now I Lay Me… runs through Saturday, September 1, at whitespace.

*Photos by Frank Sanchez