Jill Sebastian
The Limits of Paradise
As an object maker, Jill Sebastian is riveted by the rare, the firsthand experience of things. The rich, unique collections of the UWM Libraries' American Geographical Society Library and Special Collections present territories rarely visited which could be brought into a conversation with present day perspectives and with the exhibit site, Villa Terrace.
We romanticize nature; we idealize it in gardens. Sublimated are ongoing lessons of life and death, war and peace, heaven and hell. The Zubar Room offers scenes of a colorfully exotic Chinoise paradise. Yet in the garden outside, drab Sparrows were harvested by the Smith family for the pleasure of eating them. Red Wing Blackbirds fiercely defend their territory against gardeners. Tree of Heaven Sumac, Wild Mustard, Burdock and Thistle invade, threatening the order of a perfect world - the Villa Terrace’s Italian inspired garden. The ongoing war in Afghanistan seems remote, unreal.
Sebastian’s research approach involved opposing physical experience and conceptual suggestions. She conducted extensive "needle-in-the-haystack" trolling of the archives to find what resonates and deepens the threads connecting the migration of plant and wildlife with the leafleting of invaders' propaganda.
The high quality of the images Special Collections provided meant Sebastian could work directly with information rich files to pry open the singularity of one-of-a-kind artifacts, books and engravings. She was able to digitally laser cut woodblocks. The expansion and contraction of experience is the irony of our digital age.
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