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Indepth Arts News:
"Kim Christiansen: Taking it to the Streets"
2003-05-28 until 2003-07-10
Zenith Gallery with Cambridge Management
Washington, DC,
USA United States of America
Americana of the streets. A gritty beauty born of the industrial revolution, American gumption, and the progress of a developing nation. Asphalt and tire treads. As real as it gets. Christiansen’s art fulfills one of the true definitions of art; it changes the viewer’s perception of the world around him. After never taking notice of manhole covers before, those who see Christiansen's work say they will never not notice them again.
Smaller children think he’s making magic. He rubs the paper laid on the street and an image appears. Older children’s eyes are opened to the world below the street as he explains what goes on underground. Their awareness of the world below them is changed forever.
"One of my friends recently told me of a holiday he spent in the fresh air and bright sunshine of the Iowa countryside sitting at his easel painting flowered meadows and rolling hillsides. I thought of him as I bent over on one knee in the sweltering heat and slight stench of the dim alleyway where lay the manhole cover I was rubbing. The worn patina of the metal and the combined textures of the surrounding surface, the design of the casting, all intrigued me. I think of the artist who, years ago, sat before the blank page; the casting team who gave life to his design; the development of the technology that gave rise to its need. All these things and more pass through my mind as I rub, giving new life to what has been for years forgotten, unnoticed. These covers are the iron flowers in the asphalt meadows of my artistic discovery."
This exhibition is located at the Cambridge Building,
901 "E" Street, Washington.
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