thePULSEBy Leon Nigrosh
While I was growing up, at least once a year my dad would drive us out to Worcester from Cambridge so that we could visit that venerable steel and glass Art Deco building, otherwise known as the Higgins Armory Museum. I never ceased to be amazed at the array of 15th and 16th century sharp, pointy objects and glistening metal suits that lined the walls of the Great Hall. In later years, after I’d moved to Worcester, I spent much more time visiting the museum ~ and still marveled at the precision designs, the meticulous craftsmanship, the tooling, and the inlayed silver and gold that made these objects so fascinating. And then I hit the “What the hell were these people thinking?” stage. These magnificent objects were specifically designed to maim and kill people in the most efficient way possible at the time. But my fascination still lingers, and I discover new things every time I visit.
Apparently, I am not alone in this fascination. The current exhibition in the museum’s gallery features eleven large-scale drawings by artist Helen Meyrowitz, recently transplanted from New York City to Needham, that focus on armor headgear used throughout the centuries in an effort to keep the wearer alive just a little bit longer.
It was while watching early TV footage from Iraq of folks in gas masks that Meyrowitz felt the urge to offer visual commentary on the event. She went to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to concentrate on historical armor, and from there her current works evolved. Interestingly, many of the objects she depicts can be found in the Higgins collection as well.
One such drawing is her charcoal, gouache and oil bar rendition of a 17th century Spider Helmet that releases its spring-loaded cage at the touch of a button. Her monochromatic drawing has three versions of this artifact: At the top is a relatively representational illustration of the helmet, but below are two versions that become almost alien-like in their attempt to crawl off the page. Another animated work is her version of a Japanese Acorn Helmet. Japanese armorers often employed natural elements in their designs and this drawing represents just such an example. But Meyrowitz goes a step further by showing the evolution of the tiny nut into a warrior’s headgear and then implies the ultimate demise of the wearer through arrow indicators.
Her most accurate depiction is of a medieval “pig-faced” helmet. This shining, metallic work virtually glows with color as she describes a snout-like concoction specifically designed to deflect sword strikes. But the most haunting work in the exhibit is Meyrowitz’s rendition of a World War II British gas mask. Designed to keep people breathing during a gas attack, Meyrowitz herself refers to the object as “the death mask that saves your life.” The mask is fittingly a ghostly grey, but it is set against a field of pastel pink that could be construed as a cloud of deadly gas.
Some of the works are more compelling than others; the ominous British Leather Flying Helmet floating over deep red and blackened areas is far more arresting than the hastily constructed WWII German Stahlhelm, probably included in the series simply for shock value. And while many of the helmets are faithfully rendered, some of the backgrounds seem to be the “wrong” color and the number of squiggly lines in the compositions sometimes detract from the objects depicted. That said, it’s a strong show, well-suited to its surroundings and worth a visit ~ if only to compare Meyrowitz’s vision with the actual armor collection for which the Higgins Armory Museum is world- renowned.
