The Great Beyond
xCurated by Hillary Wiedemann
Artists: Leah Beeferman, Sarah Hotchkiss, Kija Lucas, Scott Massey, Sreshta Rit Premnath, and Stephanie Prussin
April 23-May 31, 2012
The works in The Great Beyond are all intrinsically connected by the notion of the universe, be it expanding or shrinking depending on your view. From our nearest surroundings of dust and dirt, to the furthest visible light, the works contemplate our place within the universe, relative to various factors of time, light, perspective, and memory. How do we perceive what is close at hand compared to the vastness beyond? How does our romantic notion of the universe shift when we are presented with raw data? Perhaps this data can again be transformed into something emotive or humorous. The exhibit begins here on our own ground, at the microscopic level, and ever mindful of our particular place and potential, works out towards the great beyond.
Kija Lucas uses that which is closest to us to represent that which is farthest away. Dust and dirt from her bedroom floor are placed on photographic paper and exposed to light. Those images are then cut up and reassembled into imaginary constellations. The result is similar to early NASA photomontages of deep space. Lucas emphasizes that we are made of the detritus of the stars, and that what we see in the sky is already a history long ago. By using her own detritus to represent celestial bodies, she links the tangible present to the visible past.
Stephanie Prussin uses time and light to record a version of reality that the human eye cannot perceive. Light takes on a performative role, a describing the experience of time as a continuum rather than a defined moment. In the Transmission/Reflection series, the movement of daylight across a white wall is captured in durational exposures, each beginning in the morning and ending at night. The colors of the analog print shift depending on the position of the viewer, and additional layering of external shadows and light reflections on its surface mimic the events of the original recording. Working with the same subject and medium, the series Transmission/Reception depicts a clearer measure of time. Light emitting from the sun exposes the film directly describes time as a drawn line by planetary rotation.
With a playful tone, Sarah Hotchkiss encourages us to investigate our surrounding universe from our particular vantage point. Several installations shown here are part of her ongoing project, The Young Astronaut Club. These installations involve an open invitation to join and participate, and asks only a few simple ideals of participants, including but not limited to: “being curious, looking up more often, and thinking about the future in fantastical rather than practical terms.” In a separate project, Choreography by Constellation, Hotchkiss provides dance steps based on familiar constellations. An attempt at such a dance may prove either impossible or better yet, hilarious.
Leah Beeferman’s drawings, digital prints, animations, and sound work create a space in-between the scientific representation of data and her interpretation of it. The result is ambiguous; suggestive of information, but providing no specifics, no particular resolution. Her process is intellectual and inventive, beginning with textual and visual research about the universe and theoretical physics, and resulting in numerous representations of ideas. Starting points are the technologies of satellites, telescopes, precision timekeeping, and data collection and transmission. Employing numerous media-drawings, etchings, animations and sounds, she provides an expansive interpretation of data, an equally intellectual and emotional process, transforming scientific reality into something altogether new.
Sreshta Rit Premnath’s installation, Blue Book, Moon Rock is an arrangement of images, text and light, and asks us to question what it is that we “know” about the moon, and calls to question how we name an object, fixate on it, and give it meaning. We can each imagine in our mind the glowing moon that looks down on us from above. (Perhaps you can even see it now). Some of us long to travel there, and even fewer of us have. Those astronauts who did make the journey returned with wondrous tales and documentation, although the actuality of the rocks they brought back can prove to be surprising and dull. As Premnath says, a “rock, a dead limb from a dead surface, does not glow.” How do we navigate the romanticized ideas of the moon once we are given part the physical embodiment, a simple rock?
Scott Massey’s 33 Views of M33 is an installation about the physical limits of human sight, light pollution, and decreased visibility in the night sky. The work is composed of 33 tungsten light bulbs arranged in the pattern of the Triangulum constellation. Each of the bulbs is laser engraved with a unique image of galaxy M33, the furthest object you can see with the unaided eye in the night sky. The bulbs are connected to a circuit that slowly dims their light according to the daylight levels outside. As natural light fades, the bulbs brighten, and the visibility of the galactic images is obscured. In Via Lactea, an ongoing series, Massey again explores the shifting borders of the light of night, this time with that of day. Over the course of many hours, he exposes the same piece of film to the star’s light in hundreds of individual shots. Then, in reversing the final product, Massey turns night into day, resulting in visible daylight stars.
Hillary Wiedemann is an artist who lives and works in Oakland, CA. She is currently the Director of Online Exhibitions for LPP, and has curated and organized several of the previous online exhibitions including Series Circuit and The Real and The Represented. She received her MFA from California College of the Arts in 2010, and BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues in the Bay Area, as well as Los Angeles, Kansas City, and New York.
www.hillarywiedemann.com
