Like a Striking Simile, an exhibition by Helen Hawley and Chele Isaac at the Arts + Lit Lab, Madison, WI, 2016

Artists Helen Hawley and Chele Isaac maintain studios one block apart in downtown Madison. They each work across a variety of media and over time noticed an uncanny simultaneity of ideas, images and insights. Curious about the recurring and serendipitous parallels, they decided to explore the source and terrain of this shared language with a collaborative exhibition. Throughout “Like a Striking Simile” Hawley and Isaac explore a fascination for how, under careful observation and consideration, the materials and objects often overlooked in daily life seem to suggest something else entirely. Though produced independently the work of the exhibition evolved in a sort of call and response to each other’s sketches and experiments.