|
Indepth Arts News:
"Regarding Nature - thorns, twigs, buds, and branches : Barbara Andrus, Cui Fei, and John Day"
2010-03-01 until 2010-05-02
Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College at Old Westbury
Old Westbury, NY,
USA United States of America
The Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College at Old Westbury is pleased to announce a group exhibition of the works by three artists who employ natural materials as the principal media of their installations. Transforming gallery spaces into contemplative environments, the artists construct site-specific works from tree and shrub parts gathered in Maine (Barbara Andrus), Long Island and upstate New York (Cui Fei), and the forested areas of the College campus (John Day). The title of the exhibition, Regarding Nature: thorns, twigs, buds, and branches, suggests the artists deep respect for nature. Because the artists often work outdoors, their work is not usually salable.
This approach harks back to the Land Art and Earthworks that challenged conventional ideas about sculpture at the end of 1960s, a time of political upheaval. The three artists celebration of understated, quiet beauty expressed through non-industrial materials contrasts sharply with the frequently grandiose, industrial-style art promoted and exhibited at museums and galleries in New York, a type of work that is entrepreneurial at core. Each artists response to his or her designated gallery space invites the viewer to experience the spiritual and romantic elements of their materials and their reverence for the domain of the natural world that lies at the heart of the Colleges spring 2010 theme of sustainability and the preservation of the environment.
Utilizing the ample vertical space of the lowest gallery, Barbara Andrus builds Two Spinners, a pair of elaborately layered conical spirals constructed from tree parts she collected on long walks in Montville, Otis, and Swans Island, Maine, and Yonkers, NY. The soaring woven structures, fixed with square knots of jute cord, become sheltering towers that suggest protection and primal spiritual energy. The viewer is encouraged to walk through and around the pieces. Reminiscent of the Italian Arte Povera artist Mario Merzs Igloos, Andruss previous work, Twigloo made out of twigs, as well as Two Spinners in this show, exhibit raw, exuberant natural energy. Enriched by the scents of birch, beech, maple, ash, lilac, and holly, the viewers passage through the spirals evokes a quiet wilderness.
Working on a smaller scale than other two artists, Cui Fei makes a seemingly gentle contribution that nevertheless delivers a powerful content. Occupying the walls of the entrance level gallery, Not Yet Titled consists of a collection of thorns that resemble the hash marks used to mark time, suggesting a prisoners diary. The work references the painful period of the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), as well as Cuis tedious days as a commercial artist. Cuis signature work, Manuscript of Nature, a collection of twigs that resemble Chinese calligraphy, is also shown in this exhibition. Cui finds a language in nature, discovering and inventing an abstract numbering and writing system whose internal logic reveals the analogous truths that lie in both language and nature.
John Day utilized branches collected over the winter from the ample wooded areas of the Old Westbury campus to build Heliotrope (turning toward the sun), an arrangement that responds to the horizontality of the main gallery space, where a single window provides the natural light source. Days structure ascends in a spiral from the center of the floor toward the window in a manner suggesting the behavior of plants seeking light: ironically, the fallen trees have achieved a conceptual regeneration that mirrors photosynthesis. The undulating top of Heliotrope gives the impression of a mountainous landscape on a distant horizon. In an intervention that brings examples of the wild beauty surrounding the College into the manmade gallery space, the artist temporarily reverses the encroachment of civilization upon the natural world.
A reception to mark the opening of Regarding Nature: thorns, twigs, buds, and branches will be held between 4:00 pm and 7:00 pm on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. In a unique educational event, the gallery will be open to the public from March 1 through the 22, as an ongoing demonstration of the process of mounting an installation exhibition. Regarding Nature: thorns, twigs, buds, and branches remains on view through May 2, 2010. Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday between 12 pm and 5pm, and by appointment.
Related Links:
| | 
|
