First exhibit of "2388: Connecting Vocabularies", in New York, 1992.

The opening of "2388: Connecting Vocabularies" at the New York Academy of Sciences in 1992, was attended by representatives of Human Rights in China.

Introductions to 2388: Connecting Vocabularies at the New York Academy of Sciences, 1992. Written by Madelaine Netter and Betty Wilde.

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Addressing a future 400 years from the present, much like an alchemist, Stefan Umærus has created a poetic visualization of connecting worlds and melded vocabularies told in painting, poetry and reportage. And it is an eloquent elixir.

The amalgamation began when Swedish-born Umærus arrived in the People's Republic of China in 1988, as a student of Chinese language at Beijing Foreign Studies University where he witnessed the events leading up to Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

Stefan Umærus potent aesthetic, utilizing the methodology of an observer in the distillation of thousands of photographs and infusion of text, encompasses subtle references to astronomy, geology and historical pasts - recording, remembering, and forwarding in lyrical interpretation.

Madelaine Netter

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The exhibition 2388: Connecting Vocabularies begins with fourteen elongated architectonic panels made of copperleaf and paint installed in the Entrance Hall to the New York Academy of Sciences and the Little Hall. These and other diverse components of Stefan Umærus mixed media presentation sets the stage for the artist's unfolding journey which coincided with the Student Democracy Movement in the People's Republic of China. An installation in the Main Hall comprised of seven double-page enlargements of the artist's diaries, recaptures the confusing and chilling occurrences stemming from the Tiananmen Square period. The format of "handwritten messages on bulletin board" is reminiscent of one of the primary methods of communication used during the information black-out. Umærus actual diaries and additional documentary artifacts are also on display, further evidence of the artist having been there. A series of fourteen elegantly crafted paintings, each brush-stroked in copper leaf with touches of aluminum gilded on mahogany plywood, are inlaid with rosewood. Silk screened with emblematic drawing and poetry, they proffer a compelling visual vocabulary.

May 22-June 4, 1989 a ten minute video collage of photographic documents, located in the Study, documents the heightened activity of the Student Movement and provides a narrative thread for the exhibition. Fusing the personal with the personal, Stefan Umaerus uses materials forcefully and poetically. Resulting textures, color and images seemingly fragmented form a psychological whole. In revealing his own perception of the events, Umaerus conveys the complexity of his impulses and, in doing so offers us his vision of a future memory of a specific time in history.

Betty Wilde

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