T H E E X H I B I T I O N
Michelle Cooke
Taos, New Mexico - New Rochelle, New York
HEAT
8' x 2" x 2" – 2016
[Detail Below]
8' x 2" x 2" – 2016
[Detail Below]
SIGHT LINES – 2016
Dimensions Various
Dimensions Various
The sculptor Robert Morris once said “simplicity of form
is not necessarily simplicity of experience.” |
My first Light installation was in 1983. Since then the pieces have gone through many iterations, including works on panel and free standing sculpture. My preference, however, continues to be installations such as these - directly on the wall with only the light mediating the sculptural effect.
I am intrigued by the ways in which small, wafer thin squares of glass, or delicate tubes of glass can subtly alter our perception, activate space and create lyrical and tactile light effects. The glass, while nearly weightless, seemingly defies and yet is dependent upon gravity. Its transparency is activated by light to create shadow images that oscillate between the abstraction of flat pattern and the illusion of cubic forms. The installations convey a visual reference to the structural properties of light while disarming the aggressive properties of projecting pieces of glass. All the pieces installed for the Las Cruces Museum of Art are specific to the space. With the exception of “Heat”, the other compositions are intended to reference the works exhibited by the other artists presented here. |
John Garrett
Las Cruces, New Mexico
CARAVAN 2
6' x 12' x 5" – 2016
BASKET/SHELTER
54" x 54" – 2016
6' x 12' x 5" – 2016
BASKET/SHELTER
54" x 54" – 2016
Since the mid 1990s I have been making pieces based on the format of the quilt. Disparate materials are put together into a whole ‘cloth’ with the square grid being the determining design component. Each square stands alone as a composition but also interacts with the surrounding squares. Just as a quilt square in a traditional quilt contains memories associated with those fabrics and designs, the squares of Caravan 2 do as well. They all refer to earlier work I have made as an artist.
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Early on in my career I worked on the loom, and still do occasionally. The woven pieces when removed from the loom were manipulated into dimensional sculptures. I used this format of manipulating flat planes into three-dimensional forms to make my early baskets. My curiosity and situation lead me to use unconventional basketry materials. Since I was living in an urban environment I harvested materials off the streets and alleys, flea markets, thrift stores and hardware stores. Using different materials then allowed/forced me to construct work in different ways. A dialogue was established between my sculptural work and my wall work. Each informs the other.
Basket/Shelter has two main inspirations. One are the indigenous shelters made by people around the world. Using available materials, natural and/or manmade, people make the most inventive homes. Many of them are not meant to be permanent, but to be moved as needed. Many use an interlacing of materials similar to textile construction. Another inspiration came from the temporary shelters constructed by the homeless I saw in Los Angeles. Using the detritus of our affluent industrial society, these shelters would be made one day to disappear the next. Shelter/Basket is not meant to be permanent structure. It will be disassembled at the end of the exhibit. While a caravan travels in a line, the journey may be circuitous. The various travelers may be friends, family or strangers. The caravan is a thing that implies action, movement and continual change. It is historically linked to trade and the exchange of materials and ideas. Caravan 2 is another piece of my art journey that examines the past as it moves into the future. |
CARAVAN 2 - Materials
(The list begins at the bottom left panel and moves to the right, then the second row and finally the third row. If a material has been listed, it is not repeated unless it is significantly different or unique.) Welded wire grids: ¼, ½, 1 and 2 inch, Paint, Waxed linen thread, Aluminum, copper, steel sheet, License plate, Artist woven fabric using rust dyed cotton, Paper collage, Yarns, Steel wire loops, Artist woven discharge ikat, Copper strips, Vintage ceiling tile, Buttons, Artist made paper on wire scrap constructions, Plied wires with beads, Bullet-riddled steel, Fabric measuring tape, Copper wrapped steel basket form, Plywood round with copper nails and string, Distressed circuit board panel, Crocheted copper wire, Painted aluminum can tops and bottoms, Union Jack perforated aluminum sheet, Plied steel wire forms, Painted and rusted steel, Plastic egg crate light fixture panel. Hardware cloth cubes with: 1. Yarn balls. 2. Manila labels, printed and collaged. 3. Yucca pods. 4. Dyed fabric. Vintage coverlet fabric, overdyed, embroidered, Bedsprings.
(The list begins at the bottom left panel and moves to the right, then the second row and finally the third row. If a material has been listed, it is not repeated unless it is significantly different or unique.) Welded wire grids: ¼, ½, 1 and 2 inch, Paint, Waxed linen thread, Aluminum, copper, steel sheet, License plate, Artist woven fabric using rust dyed cotton, Paper collage, Yarns, Steel wire loops, Artist woven discharge ikat, Copper strips, Vintage ceiling tile, Buttons, Artist made paper on wire scrap constructions, Plied wires with beads, Bullet-riddled steel, Fabric measuring tape, Copper wrapped steel basket form, Plywood round with copper nails and string, Distressed circuit board panel, Crocheted copper wire, Painted aluminum can tops and bottoms, Union Jack perforated aluminum sheet, Plied steel wire forms, Painted and rusted steel, Plastic egg crate light fixture panel. Hardware cloth cubes with: 1. Yarn balls. 2. Manila labels, printed and collaged. 3. Yucca pods. 4. Dyed fabric. Vintage coverlet fabric, overdyed, embroidered, Bedsprings.
BASKET/SHELTER - Materials
PVC plumbing pipe, Rust dyed sheets and t shirts, Steel rods, Plastic sheeting, Fish net, Plastic hardware cloth, Welded wire fence grid, Plastic garden screening, Drywall seam tape, Fiberglass patch material, Burlap, Cardboard paper, 17th century book paper, Hand woven fabric strip, Crocheted copper wire, Plied brass wire, Bed springs, Cable ties, Various tapes, cords, twine and strings.
PVC plumbing pipe, Rust dyed sheets and t shirts, Steel rods, Plastic sheeting, Fish net, Plastic hardware cloth, Welded wire fence grid, Plastic garden screening, Drywall seam tape, Fiberglass patch material, Burlap, Cardboard paper, 17th century book paper, Hand woven fabric strip, Crocheted copper wire, Plied brass wire, Bed springs, Cable ties, Various tapes, cords, twine and strings.
Tim Harding
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
THE SHROUD SERIES – SHROUD TRIPTYCH – 2004
Falling Man
118" x 42" x 2"
Ascending Man
118" x 42" x 2"
Vanishing Man
123" x 42" x 2"
Falling Man
118" x 42" x 2"
Ascending Man
118" x 42" x 2"
Vanishing Man
123" x 42" x 2"
My "Shroud Series" pieces, two sided, translucent panels, are self portraits, traced outlines of my body done with growing recognition of my own mortality. I grew up Roman Catholic, and as a student of surface design, I have been especially fascinated with the "Shroud of Turin", to which my Shrouds pay homage. They were also inspired by the tragic events of 9/11, especially the powerful, horrific photos which still stick in my mind of the victims jumping from the uppermost floors of the World Trade Center. The still, frozen images of those figures had an ethereal, floating quality, an almost peaceful acceptance of fate. They came to mind for me often as I developed these pieces. |
Katharine Kreisher
Oneonta, New York
Professor of Art, Department of Art & Art History, Hartwick College
HEKATE'S DREAM
8' x 16' Various – 2016
8' x 16' Various – 2016
“Hekate’s Dream” is part of my on-going series of “Dream” installations, journeys into unconscious narratives, reworkings of memory and myth. This colorfully crocheted and knit installation is built from funnel-like shapes referencing desert plant forms and flowers. To me it is as if the archaic domestic goddess of ancient Greece, Hekate, dreamed of a desert landscape where distorted plants give way to surprising blooms, funnels deliver water and disrupting whirlwinds come and go.
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Working with yarn and thread and cloth to “find” the imagery, I imagined myself at all ages in half-remembered rooms conversing with my mother and aunts and grandmothers while quilts and sweaters and socks emerged under our fingertips. Today for “Hekate’s Dream” I find around me a new circle of funnel-loving “fibersmiths.” I call these artist assistants The Yarn Goddesses. This project came to life through the skillful dedication of artist assistants Colleen Davis and Willow Blue Silver who helped me realize my vision for “Hekate’s Dream.” Colleen Davis* is a fiber artist from Bainbridge NY who worked as my research assistant while she completed the art and art history programs at Hartwick College. Willow Blue Silver is an award-winning sculptor who lives in both Schenevus NY and Truth or Consequences NM. The other generous Yarn Goddesses are Katherine Bartlett* and her mother Tula Mandilas from Wayland MA, Kathy Rogers Wohlhuter and her daughter Mary Wohlhuter from Jacksonville FL, Sherry Sugg MacNicoll from Frenchtown NJ and Janet C. Oswald from Fort Edward NY. The last four friends on this list are members of my own Class of 1971 at Skidmore College; they came to our reunion in Saratoga Springs NY last June and joined the project.
* This work was supported in part through Hartwick College Faculty Research Grants that funded two student artist assistants, Colleen Davis and Katherine Bartlett. |
Mayumi Nishida
Santa Fe, New Mexico
INVERSE PYRAMID
2015 - 2016
Mayumi Nishida
Cast Silk
9' ht x 12' x 12'
2015 - 2016
Mayumi Nishida
Cast Silk
9' ht x 12' x 12'
761 translucent, hand fashioned 5" x 7" x 7" silk pyramids, inverted and suspended in 20 vertical layers
to imply one 9' x 12' x 12' Inverse Pyramid
to imply one 9' x 12' x 12' Inverse Pyramid
I chose to work with silk because it represents the first industrial practice in Japan. The slave-like conditions of the almost entirely female workforce was what made possible my country’s very first foray into capitalization. Silk also has a long history connecting east and west through commerce, and due to it’s inherent strength and translucent beauty has been a mainstay luxury item for “those at the top of the pyramid” over many millennium.
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I’m using the pyramidal structure to represent the ascendancy of human hierarchy during the agricultural revolution. Comparing Neolithic archeological sites like Gobleki Tepe, with it’s multiple, earth based centers, to the Great Pyramids of Giza, which stood, as tombs for single kings, is instructive. I’ve chosen the pyramidal structure to draw parallels between the numerous Ponzi schemes, and pseudo-supremacies at work in increasingly hierarchized human social and economic structures worldwide.
In Deleuzian terms I’m transforming the pyramid from an arborescent structure of caste, into a rhizomatic one of equitable multiplicity. It is meant to evoke a world emptied of the oppression inevitably pursued by overarching hierarchies, and to suggest the beauty of a world where power is reposited multi-centrally, and where depth of meaning is valued over social ascendancy. |
Gail Rieke
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Emily Harvey Foundation Residency, Venice, Italy, 2015
VENICE, ITALY, COLLAGE´
16.25”H x 63.25”L – 2015 - 2016
TRAVEL JOURNEY MAP, VENICE, ITALY
42”H x 47.25W” – 2015 - 2016
MEDIA SLIDE PRESENTATION
accompanying the Travel Journey Map 7 minutes
ITALY SUITCASE TRAVEL JOURNAL
20.75"L x 13.75"W x 8.5"H – 1995 - 2015 - 2016
16.25”H x 63.25”L – 2015 - 2016
TRAVEL JOURNEY MAP, VENICE, ITALY
42”H x 47.25W” – 2015 - 2016
MEDIA SLIDE PRESENTATION
accompanying the Travel Journey Map 7 minutes
ITALY SUITCASE TRAVEL JOURNAL
20.75"L x 13.75"W x 8.5"H – 1995 - 2015 - 2016
Gail Rieke is an internationally recognized collage/ assemblage/ installation artist and teacher who lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gail was selected to receive an Emily Harvey Foundation Residency in Venice during the summer of 2015.
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Venice Italy Collagé contains prints of old maps, postcards, drawings by the artist on tracing paper, found papers, photographs by the artist printed on paper and acetate, lire, wine label, stamps, and collaged papers.
Travel Journey Map Venice, Italy. Pins mark the places the artist visited. These include photos by the artist, business cards, tickets, memorabilia, marbelized paper by Sialia Rieke, Serena Rieke, Pam Smith, Ton Leech, Katherine Loeffler and Venetian artists. Accompanied by a 7 minute slide presentation. Italy Suitcase Travel Journal. This journal displays the artist's creative response to two journeys in Italy. The first trip was in Florence, Venice, Santa Margherita, Portafino, Viterbo and Rome in 1995. The second trip was in Venice in 2015 and was a one month residency awarded by the Emily Harvey Foundation. The piece is packed into a vintage leather suitcase. It contains various book forms by the artist, as well as Sialia Rieke's artist book, A Prodigal Crab in Venice, copy #1 of 50. Sialia Rieke also crafted the binding of the written journal; of the 2015 trip in vellum. Gail Rieke's configurations of materials are assembled together by considerations of color, texture, composition, and formal dynamics. |
Signe Stuart
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Professor Emerita South Dakota State University
QUANTA 1
25"w x 40"h – 2015
TRAJECTORIES
series of three trapezoids
20" x 25.5" each – 2015
QUANTA 2 & 3
40"w x 25"h – 2015
sewn – stretched canvas – acrylic paint layers
25"w x 40"h – 2015
TRAJECTORIES
series of three trapezoids
20" x 25.5" each – 2015
QUANTA 2 & 3
40"w x 25"h – 2015
sewn – stretched canvas – acrylic paint layers
I begin all my canvas works by drawing a measured sequence of a few rhythmically spaced lines onto the canvas surface, which are then folded, cut and sewn. When the canvas is stretched, the sewn linear forms emerge in low relief...defined by light.
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Canvas, being a thread grid, has a predictable order which determines and limits how it can be sewn. “Listening” to the stretched and unpainted sewn canvas, I choose hues and apply them in translucent layers of acrylic paint until the whole...linear rhythms rising in color space...comes into sync. The process begins with a plan and ends with chance and improvisation.
In the Quanta Series chords of linear movement emerge in atmospheres of color muted to the edge of disappearing. The interplay of reflected light creates quiet visual music. Trajectories reflect on the idea that something emerges from nothing...that light in all its forms is the underlying connective and communicative fabric of nature. The arrangement of trapezoid panels enhances a sense of movement initiated by single lines emerging in each panel. Fading in and out of color suggests another kind of movement between the permanent and the ephemeral. |
s.c. Thayer
Santa Fe, New Mexico
FALL LINE #8
2016
dimensions variable
kozo, gampi fibers, linen
2016
dimensions variable
kozo, gampi fibers, linen
Working with the fibers of kozo and gampi is working with nature. The source of these fibers are from the inner bark of trees grown in Japan and harvested in the winter months. Traditionally, this material is used to form beautiful translucent two-dimensional sheets of paper that, for centuries, the Japanese have utilized in everything from architecture to clothing. Here in FALL LINE these fibers are manipulated into shapes and assembled into a sculptural form suspended in space allowing you, the viewer, to escape into the quiet collective beauty of these weightless, airy forms as they move on the slightest current of air casting mesmerizing shadows across the floor and wall.
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David Wagner
Santa Fe, New Mexico
BIRTHFACE SERIES
Birthface 1
Birthface 2
Birthface 3
Ripstop polyester fabric with dye sublimation printing, carbon fiber tubes, dacron line
2 meters wide x 3 meters high – 2016
Birthface 1
Birthface 2
Birthface 3
Ripstop polyester fabric with dye sublimation printing, carbon fiber tubes, dacron line
2 meters wide x 3 meters high – 2016
Three images derived from pixelated photographs. My son’s face at birth, and at the ages of five and eight.
As well as I know my only child, more of his personality becomes private and somewhat hidden from me, as he becomes older. My first look into his face at birth seemed to reveal everything to me. Now, he changes and grows every day, and I feel I have just glimpses into his thoughts. I’ve attempted to portray this experience in this series.
Visitors are encouraged to view the kites with their cell phone giving the viewer an experience similar to experiencing the kites in flight, 150 feet in the air.
As well as I know my only child, more of his personality becomes private and somewhat hidden from me, as he becomes older. My first look into his face at birth seemed to reveal everything to me. Now, he changes and grows every day, and I feel I have just glimpses into his thoughts. I’ve attempted to portray this experience in this series.
Visitors are encouraged to view the kites with their cell phone giving the viewer an experience similar to experiencing the kites in flight, 150 feet in the air.