Mind Sets and Attract/Repel: two shows that open soon

I am in TWO shows The open on the same day!
Happily, only one has it's opening reception then.
Attract/Repel is part of Central Booking's continuing series of science-based exhibitions, this one focusing on physics. It should be a fascinating show and I am really pleased to be a part of it. Central Booking is a really special gallery with excellent and eccentric programming....

Secondly, we have Mind Sets, being held at real-life hotbed of science, the Haskins Language Lab! This was really a unique opportunity, and was so much fun. Meant to be a collaboration between artists and scientists, I can hardly lay claim to any such rigor:
my work is full of fiction, rumor, superstition and innuendo.
I am very happy with it.
From the press release:
"Curated by Cat Balco and Debbie Hesse with Curatorial Assistant Steven Olsen, Mind Sets explores the potential of collaboration between artists and scientists. New initiatives and ideas result from conversations between artists and scientists, offering new ways of approaching concepts through interdisciplinary communication. "

Featured artists include Fritz Horstman, Zachary Keeting, Lucy Kim, Eva Lee, Martha Lewis, Laura Marsh, Kim Mikenis, Carol Padberg, Dushko Petrovich, Cuyler Remick, Matt Sargent, Bill Solomon, Susan Classen-Sullivan and Paul Theriault.

Students of Natacha Poggio, a multidisciplinary designer on faculty at Hartford Art School and Director of the Design Global Change initiative, have collaboratively produced a catalogue and graphic images for the exhibit.

Haskins Laboratories is an independent, international, multidisciplinary community of researchers conducting basic research on spoken and written language. Exchanging ideas, fostering collaborations, and forging partnerships across the sciences, it produces groundbreaking research that enhances our understanding of -- and reveals ways to improve or remediate -- speech perception and production, reading and reading disabilities, and human communication."

This is an unusual setting for an exhibition and the work I've seen so is daring and varied-

worth a detour and a snoop, I'd say...

Rearranging Formulae

The collaborative group Metron have curated an exhibition at the O3 Gallery in Oxford, UK, based on various science books which were randomly given to each of the participating artists.
The exhibit coincides with both the Oxford Literary Festival and the UK's Year of Science.
The books were kindly offered and selected by Oxford University Press.
I myself was given the rather challenging "Quarterly Journal of Mathematics and Mechanical
Engineering" to work with, which resulted in the accordion fold notebook shown here.

This is an ambitious exhibition, both in scope and media- there are dancers, performance artists, musical works, videos, paintings, drawings and objects all inhabiting the relatively modest curved tower that makes up the O3 Gallery. An accompanying booklet has been produced, and is essential to understanding this rather complex and obscure display. The works shown in the gallery all have numbers next to them, and the booklet provides much-needed information about the art-object's starting text, the artist, and the project itself. Without this, the exhibit might appear to be a rather intriguing but impenetrable collection of items.

Many of the works are dense and detailed, as the artist grappled with the task of transmuting the content of their starting text into visual form. I myself read and re-read my journal multiple times until I suffered from the illusion that I understood it, and then proceeded to work with it. As misinformation is as important to my output as "correct" interpretations, this did not pose a significant problem for me, but some of artists I spoke with had struggled with the enormity of the task of clarifying and distilling their projects into a coherent visual project.

I was delighted with the variety of work, and of the energy everyone had put into the whole thing: quite a labor of love on the whole, and a really interesting way to include visual arts into both the literary festival and the Year of Science.
I will include pictures of the exhibition as a whole, as I get them!

Re-arranging Formulae
March 20-April 25, 2010

O3 Gallery
Oxford Castle
New Road, Oxford OX1 1AY, United Kingdom
01865 246 131

Yarn Theory exhibit at PS122 Gallery is open!

Yarn Theory is now up and open!

I am really pleased with how all of the work interacts together in the space, and was totally blown away by how many people showed up for the opening!

My stars...

This exhibit is NOT about hats, scarves socks or mittens, it is about exciting soft sculptural work, with an amazing variety of forms, colors textures, allusions and imagery. I hope this show gets some attention, because I really think the artists shown here deserve it.

Many are practicing mathematicians, which makes what they produce closer to Modeling structures rather than making sculpture, a distinction I am intrigued by.

I realize that I am hardly impartial, but I do think the show works well, and offers so intriguing surprises....

What to see in Oxford:

This is an exhibition I will be participating in, which will be on during the Oxford Literary festival. A group of artists were given books being "De-Accessioned" by The Oxford Library, to respond to in some way. The results are surprising....
If you are in the area, by all means stop by and see this most unusual celebration of books and Libraries.

Endnotes : unwrapping books
An unusual celebration of books and libraries
March 28 - April 26, 2009
Private View: March 27 6-8 pm
The 03 Gallery, Oxford Castle, Oxford UK

Featuring work by:

Marco Betti
Patricia Drew
Alan Franklin
Jim le Fevre
Joanna Gilmour
Laurence Halstead
Sally Howkins
Diane Jones-Parry
Martha Lewis
Mel/ Dominic Lash
David Stent
Chris Stubbs
Nichola Nixon
Karen Purple
Annabel Ralphs
Tom Ralphs Laman
Prue Robinson
Kate Willis

Curated by Diane Jones-Parry and Annabel Ralphs

GALLERY HOURS: Mon - Closed; Tues - Fri 12-5pm; Sat & Sun 11am-4pm

O3 Gallery, Oxford Castle, Oxford OX1 1AY, T: (011-44)(0)1865 246131,

info@o3gallery.co.uk,

www.o3gallery.co.uk