Photo credit: @bareface_art
2022 EXHIBIT
“As far as my heart, I’d rather be restless”:
Amy Winehouse's Ache for the Truth
EXHIBIT PRESENTATION
SAT, FEB 19, 2022
5:15 PM ET | FLOOR 2 | FLYER PDF
→ IN-PERSON ONLY
With Stephen Adubato, curator
EXHIBIT TOURS:
Sat, Feb 19
10:30, 11:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:15, 6:15, 7:30
Sun, Feb 20
10:45, 11:45, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:45
Upon encountering Amy Winehouse, comedian and friend of the singer Russell Brand recounted hearing “a voice that was filled with such power and pain that it was at once entirely human yet laced with the divine. My ears, my mouth, my heart and mind all instantly opened. Winehouse. Winehouse? Winehouse!” Though he had known the jazz singer, “I now regarded her in a different light, the light that blazed down from heaven when she sang.”
The British singer and songwriter's rapid rise to fame and tragic death captured the attention of people around the world. "With the death of Amy Winehouse," writes the journalist John Waters, "there is this sense of a crushing cliché being repeated. But if, like all clichés, it contains a truth, then what is the nature of that truth?" For Winehouse, music was not a means to garner fame or wealth, but instead was a means for engaging with the truth of her humanity. It was her way of confronting the "aching pain" that "seized [her] guts," no matter how much she may have attempted to distract herself from it. Her songs brought to life her heart’s search for truth. "She was wounded,” says Waters, “not because she abused herself, but because she was called to be the voice of the walking wounded, which is to say the totally human. On behalf of this humanity, she begged in song for answers and reassurance."
Although her life was cut dramatically short, her music continues to testify to her uncompromising desire to understand the truth of the human heart. Her witness is a beacon to those who recognize this ache, this profound questioning when listening to her songs. This exhibit will explore how Winehouse's life and music gave voice to this search for an answer, and how hope might emerge from such a pain-ridden life.
