How Can the Grid Deal with a Messy World?
Joseloff Gallery
University of Hartford
West Hartford
April 10, 2025
Heading back to the University of Hartford felt like a homecoming after many years. I spent a lot of time there in high school, both due to various events I participated in, and because a close friend’s father was a professor there. While I visited initially to see the Dream Murals exhibit (read that review here), I was also invited to view the work of designer and multidisciplinary artist Silas Munro in the Joseloff Gallery on campus. Titled How Can the Grid Deal with a Messy World?, the exhibit was a fascinating juxtaposition of the very public art in Dream Murals, with the personal and intimate work that Munro had on display.
The exhibit is the latest iteration in an ongoing Munro project called Black Grids. According to the artist, the project “explores the grid as a foundational design tool with deep ties to the artist’s Ugandan heritage.” Geometry and shape are obviously critical aspects of art, but I’d never considered geometry as the interrogative foundation of heritage and meaning.
Take, for example, the piece titled Cousin Dorcas Baby Blue Grid/Babanda Bande Dorcas Omwana wa Bbululu Guliidi. Dorcas is centered in the piece, yet the griding which surrounds her serves to make her stand out even more in the foreground of the artwork, which is produced on Jacquard woven cotton. The grids form layers on the two dimensional space of the quilt; a thick blue grid on the outside encompasses the entirety of Dorcas, save for a bit of her feet at the bottom. It draws the eye towards the humanity of the image, even as various symbols, colors and textures fight for the attention of the viewer.
The grid in the center of the piece adds the second layer — this is not just a picture of a person, but an important person in Munro’s life. Even without knowing the relationship, shapes are used to convey meaning to the viewer. Indeed, the baby blue of the grid also conveys meaning, a softness for the subject that we can feel even without the sensation of touch. A silhouetted figure in the distance is a stark contrast to the colorful clothing that Dorcas wears, and drives home the centrality of Dorcas in Munro’s life.
On the other hand, a series of sculptures feels completely devoid of humanity and warmth. These structures, positioned centrally in the exhibition, are much more evocative of what one typically thinks of when it comes to grids: hard, black and unyielding, like the lines on mathematical graph paper or the unchanging layout of a street design.
In fact, the sculptures feel like miniatures of structures that would be found in a city, serving as a contrast to the humanism on display in the rest of the exhibit. Some of the sculptures resemble skylines, others big box retailers that dot the landscape. There is one that looks like a cube, reminiscent of the Borg, the villainous aliens from Star Trek that consume and absorb the individuality and free will of their victims. It seems like an appropriate metaphor when compared to the baby-blue grid that brackets his beloved family member.
Being back at the University of Hartford brought up all the memories of friendship and family that I’d formed years ago, and it was good to be back in a place that felt like home. It helped me appreciate what I thought Munro was trying to communicate with his grids, both the soft blue ones and the hard black ones.
