Site Map / FAQ / Contact

Residency Dates: May 3-5, 2003
No description.

Bollards (Oval, Snowman, Peg, Penis), 2001.
(bol-lard, noun: a strong post on a wharf or on a ship, used to secure ropes, or a spike of rock or a pillar of ice around which a rope can be secured.)

Bollards are designed to be part of a scheme by artists in Peckham England, Antony Gormley’s hometown, to regenerate the area with individually designed lampposts, pavements and street furniture. These Bollards, made to the height of more standard versions, (Gormely has designed 40 different Bollards) are installed in the area near his studio in Peckham. The forms of the bollards are refined to basic symbols for the subjects they represent, and consequently have a startling presence. Their substantial volume and differing profiles harmonize through their regular height and even placement. Unlike the majority of his sculptures, that are casts of his own body, these pieces are designed to be both sculptural and functional.

Stone, Earth, Flesh, Wood: The 39th Parallel, 2003

Each one of my pieces reflects an aspect of both my cognitive and emotional understanding. My body is the conduit for my ideas. Using my physicality to reveal my shared human vulnerability through tension and struggle brings others closer to understanding my intent. I want the individual viewing my work to think about who they are in relationship to what they have seen. The physical demands of my work create an understanding of both my corporeal strengths and weaknesses while fostering empathy in the viewer. In this piece, public personas collide with private emotional realities. My work confronts the norms of social interaction by asking significant questions of its viewers and pointing at the damaging repetitive behavior of humanity.

Galaxie

Galaxie is made up of hundreds of tiny droplets covered in glass-reflective beading, strung by nylon from trees. The piece is modeled after the spiral galaxy, discovered by scientists in 2002, thought to have the potential for an Earth-like, life-giving planet. It draws on the bittersweet pursuits of scientists, intelligent and well trained, spending their lives reaching into the farthest realms of space in search of what can only yet be realized here in our earthly home. This piece is a part of a larger body of work entitled SETI, the science research group investigating the Search for Extraterrestrial Life.

A Lifespan

Intended to be a work in progress, part of an emerging series called One mans futile attempt to reconstruct nature, Kurt Steger conceives and erects the sculpture with the purpose of handing it over to the elements of nature, beginning a chain of events in destruction and disintegration. His intention is to make the work available to be absorbed into the elements from which it was created. It is at this point of absorption that Kurt will consider the work fully completed.

The Woodpecker Initiative

For the last few years, Jim Toia has been making woodpecker feeders using painted, perforated copies of Piet Mondrian paintings. Mondrian regarded his later work as nature abstracted and purified. As bird feeders these copies are slowly picked apart as woodpeckers make their way to the food source within. Natures organic flow slowly reclaims he painted image of perfection and symmetry. In these works Toia seeks to convey the absolute brilliance of circumstance and contingency. When successful, the viewer becomes aware of the fragility of the moment, realizes the miracle of our predicament, and bends to the fascination of pure experience.

The Aviary

Mary Tsiongass work often deals with nature and human technology interacting to provoke memory. Mimicry has long been a form of human interaction with nature. A birds song for example is mimicked through a person's vocal cords by recalling the memory of the birds call. Disney technology has developed animatronics to mimic jungle wildlife, replaying hundreds of times daily for years on end. It is the memory of these experiences as a child that motivates adults to return with their own children to experience what they remember themselves. It is these sorts of considerations that led Tsiongas to conceive a series of interactive pieces that attempt to revisit and reconfigure the human/nature/technology interrelationship. Tsiongas mixes human mimicry of nature with digital sound chips and light activated photocells. Melding ideas of mimicry with technology into simulations of natural systems is the crux of The Aviary. Each morning the sun rises it activates the array of solar panels attached to digital sound chips spurring them into song, which are actually recordings of people mimicking birdsong.

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................