"WE" by Megan McManus
The Arts League
4226 Spruce St.
Philadelphia
Seen April 18, 2025
Showing April 4 - May 2, 2025
On a cloudy April afternoon, I am visiting The Arts League, a West Philly house turned arts workshop space. The Arts League hosts various classes for kids and adults while maintaining a small gallery space. Their latest show, entitled “WE,” is a collection of theatrical, mixed-media work by the artist Megan McManus. The centerpiece is something like a shopping mall gone wrong: Stacked in a pile are a bunch of gray, papier-mache block letters “wearing” jeans. Fitting rooms are rarely fun, but I venture to try on the artist’s perspective.
The broader show plays with various configurations of these chunky letters, which serve as McManus’ muses. Oil paintings display the denim-clad letters drafted into phrases like “The Labor.” Pencil drawings hang opposite the high-contrast paintings, with softly rendered sketches of words like “Lest” and “Go.” Still, the attention-stealing installation is the sculptural pulp project in the middle of the room. The paper letters, in perfectly tailored pants, almost spell out “We the People,” but the message is obfuscated by a barrage of additional or duplicate alphabet members.
On one wall of the gallery is a large whiteboard asking people to write down the words they thought the block letters should articulate. I immediately think of “CAMP,” and compose the following acrostic poem inspired by the mannequin lettering in front of me.
C Letter C is fresh from the club; the drinks were strong and the jeans are riding low. Letter C has been dancing all night long, and presumably pulling up her low rise jeans all night too. She’s small but she is mighty. We love your style, Letter C.
A Letter A wears a ‘90s classic, the denim boot. The boots are bringing the drama, with a lavish denim train attached to her calf. It may be hard for Letter A to get anything done in these delicious shoes, but sometimes it’s ok to sit there and look pretty.
M Letter M unfortunately isn’t present at the party, so Letter N takes her place. Letter N is coming in hot with the high rise jeans. This girl is buttoned up, and hasn’t seen the light of day in years. We wish Letter N all the best in her studies.
P Letter P has decided that today’s look is one leg in the jeans, one leg out. We respect her decision and wonder about her plans for the other leg. It is always awesome to witness innovation. If you can pull it off, Letter P, then why the hell not!
In retrospect: the exhibit alluded to ideas about the democratization and diversity of language. But I couldn’t focus on the themes it seeks to hit on — like constitutional hypocrisy or labor rights — when each letter was looking so fine and special in their tight-fitting jeans. The show may have meant something different if it saw the alphabet drowning in workwear, but it was the singular curvaceousness of each and every letter that put on the real show. The gallery is an invitation for all of us to adorn and write out the values we hope to live by without taking ourselves so seriously. Maybe we don’t need to always express our beliefs out loud in all-caps. We can just put on our skinny jeans and simply try to put our best selves forward.
