The Joe McCauley Gallery is located on Heartland Community College's Normal campus and is only open during the week. And it's a bit of work to find the white-walled gem in the Instructional Commons Building, but worth it to try.
That is never truer than with Perennial Optimism 2.0, featuring work by mixed media artist David Dow.
In some ways, Perennial Optimism 2.0 feels like an extension of Unsteady Hands, Dow’s 2021 show at the McLean County Arts Center. But they are miles apart, save two important similarities. One is the aesthetic, including painstakingly intricate work with glass beads set in wax—strung by hand and in some cases placed one by one. It’s a process he characterizes as nearing insanity, particularly given the central tremor that causes his hands to shake.
A second point: One of the six pieces on display was part of Unsteady Hands, an exhibition culled from Dow’s memories spending time in Iran as a child. McCauley Gallery Coordinator Shahrbanoo Hamzeh is an Iranian immigrant and organized Perennial Optimism 2.0. The sculpture now named after her—faceless and adorned with thousands of glistening ruby beads on a stark, knobby piece of wood—presides over the gallery at its entrance.
The other five works are inspired by stories of women Dow encountered through Labyrinth Made Goods, a business training and support program he and his partner, Jim Neeley, helped launch.
“The overarching story is the lesson we can learn from nature,” Dow said in an interview. “During the winter, we look outside, and everything looks dead, dormant, dark. But with time, and with care and nurturing, blooms start to occur. It’s the same with people.”
Administered by the YWCA McLean County, Labyrinth Made Goods produces and sells fragrances and candles, providing mentorship and life skills to ease the transition into society following incarceration.
“We imprison people, we take away their driver’s license, their licenses for work. We take away their housing, their ability to vote and their dignity,” Dow said. “And then they get out and we expect them to be fully engaged in their community and contributing. It’s impossible.”
Dow spent years hearing Ann, Hannah, Nita, Candice and Shay’s stories through their work at Labyrinth. Together with Hamzeh, they form the foundation of the exhibition, Hamzeh providing a counternarrative on a different kind of incarceration: being a woman in Iran.
Thus, Perennial Optimism 2.0 is a not entirely a solo show—though all the artwork is Dow’s. Each is a larger-than-life, human-shaped amalgam of reclaimed materials, modeling clay, papier mâché and (likely) thousands of those tiny glass beads.
There’s one exception: Nita. Hers is an old wooden chair with layers of modeling clay and beaded flowers sprouting from the rungs on its back. According to Vera Travers from YWCA Labyrinth House, a residential facility for formerly incarcerated women, Nita was the life of the party, bringing joy and laughter to every room she entered.
“She told me when I get ready to change my life, I’m going to call you. That’s exactly what she did,” Travers said in a recorded message for gallery viewers. A QR code for each sculpture directs visitors to hear the women tell their stories. Travers speaks on Nita’s behalf.
“Nita came to live with us at the Labyrinth House and did wonderful work there,” Travers said. “She fell in love with recovery.”
But years of alcohol addiction took a toll on Nita’s body—a toll her heart ultimately could not withstand.
“That empty chair is to signify that Nita is still present with us,” Dow said. “Even though there’s darkness, you see all that growth and life.”
Hannah has the prongs of a pitchfork rising out of a slender piece of reclaimed wood with green, beaded circles representing a plant cut off at the stem. Ann is a blooming acacia flower with thorns adorning its stem. Each sculpture represents renewal under even the harshest of circumstances—analogous to those hardy hostas and crocuses that reemerge each spring even after neglect.
“That’s the power of this show and of nature,” Dow said, noting that much of the women’s optimism stems from career advancement programs available to them at Heartland Community College. “With care, time, nurturing and attention, they’ll thrive. That’s what we need to see in each other.”
Perennial Optimism 2.0 is on view through March 29 at Joe McCauley Gallery. The gallery is free and open to the public Monday-Friday 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Two panel discussions and a reception will take place on March 28. Also that day, Labyrinth Made Goods will launch a pop-up shop on Heartland's campus through April 11.
