Ellen Cornett chosen for Hirshhorn Museum exhibit
All summer Ellen has been contributing to an exhibit of charcoal drawings at the Hirshhorn Museum. Yes. THE Hirshhorn Museum.
The museum selected Ellen and 14 other artists to draw on the walls as part of its exhibit, Rirkrit Tiravanija: (who’s afraid of red, yellow and green), which just closed this week.
I’ll try to explain more about the title and the artist Tiravanija later, but let’s look at the art first.
Eight weeks ago, Ellen was drawing on white walls. 
Now she is placing an image on top of other ones and sometimes rubbing out area to lighten them.
The exhibit uses images related to repression and brutality in Thailand and other countries, but also historical photos, like this one that Ellen drew of women suffragettes. 
This photo shows those same suffragettes with other images layered over them.
Ellen drew this horrific image on one of the first days she was there. 
Here is the same image two months later.
/https://public-media.si-cdn.com/filer/be/70/be70a8ca-c661-488c-ae91-fc55ef237b32/2019rirkritmay16-243-1.jpg)
Ellen notes that having the artists present, creating the drawing, is also part of the “performance art” aspect of the exhibit. “Without us there drawing, the mural is less powerful, less wonderful.”
Many of the artists participating are young. “Some of the kids I am working with are quite amazing,” Ellen said. “I’m learning from them.” That’s Ellen for you.
Even though she had very high expectations about her time at Hirshhorn, Ellen now says, “I do have to say that the whole experience and the resultant art is so much more wonderful even than I had expected.”
Marian Wiseman
Watercolorist
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THE WEDNESDAY STUDIO 
Thank you for showing the mural over time. I had seen it earlier, but the time lapse brings the artist’s vision into focus. Congrats, Ellen, for being part of such a powerful Hirshhorn exhibit.
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