Thicket

A thicket of summer grass / Is all that remains / Of the dreams of ancient warriors.

Basho

Beyond, outside of me, in the green and gold thicket, among the tremulous branches, sings the unknown. It calls to me.  But the unknown is familiar and therefore we do know, with a knowledge of memory, where the poetic voice comes from and where it goes.  I was here before.

Octavio Paz, The Bow and the Lyre

Thickets are dense areas of plants, found both inside woodlands and in grassy plains.  A thicket is something that provides cover for smaller species and tends to be hard to penetrate for larger species.  Bursting with greens, browns, and yellows, it is a space of filtered light, a liminal space, an edge space.  Thickets can be unruly and teeming with life, but also protective - refusing entry to predators.

Many artists are drawn to middle spaces, collective in-betweens to gather.  Thicket here is a middle space, not a clearing or a dense cover.  This group of artists reflects an impulse toward greenery and lushness tempered by scale. Many works show a density but with a welcome uncertainty. 

There is a sense that the thicket is both compellingly lush and dangerous and also small and weedy.  Some works showcase the threatening precarity of edge spaces, others detail the invasive species that constitute a great many thicket-spaces. 

Thicket is an investigation of the liminal, haunted, green, and unruly edge spaces opening June 7th, 2025.  This show runs from June 7th through July 19th, 2025 at Overlap Gallery in Newport, RI. 

Overlap Gallery

112 Van Zandt Ave

Newport, RI

Kirstin Lamb, guest curator