SARATOGA SPRINGS — Three exhibitions opening May 31 at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College will feature works from the Tang’s collection as well as that of contemporary art collectors Ann and Mel Schaffer.
“Hearing Pictures,” which runs through Dec. 30, invites visitors to both look at and “listen to” artwork. “The idea is to imagine auditory worlds in silent images,” said Tang Curatorial Assistant Megan Hyde, who organized the show. Arranged to evoke a musical score, the works embody sounds from thunderous blasts to barely audible whispers. Some evoke sound through abstract compositions of line, form and color that produce the feeling or mood of a sound, while others depict scenes and actions that we know generate sounds — images of rushing water, an explosion, or people playing musical instruments.
The exhibition highlights work from the Tang Collection in a range of styles and media, from a 17th-century woodblock print by Japanese artist Nishikawa Sukenobu to a recent Carrie Mae Weems photograph. The exhibition also features work by artists deeply invested in the relationship between sound and vision, including John Christie, Wassily Kandinsky, and James McNeill Whistler. Works such as Heide Fasnacht’s drawing “Blast” (1997-98) clearly evoke a specific sound, while Stanislaw Kubicki’s linoleum cut “Der Turmbau” (c. 1917) might be “heard” as an exuberant choir or a group of people screaming in flight. Abstract works like Eduardo Paolozzi’s “Similar remarks apply to Uranium 235” (1965-70) are open to broad auditory interpretation.
Visitors will be able to create sounds they “hear” in a particular artwork using a small recording set-up in the gallery, which will play back on the Tang’s website. Events over the course of the exhibition will bring a range of regional musicians to perform at the museum, using the artworks as their score. These various recorded responses will become material for a piece in the Tang’s “Elevator Music” series.
Those visiting the Tang early in the summer will have the opportunity to explore two other shows organized to coincide with Skidmore Alumni Reunion (May 31–June 3) and SaratogaArtsFest (June 7–10).
From May 31 through June 10, the Tang will feature important works of contemporary art in “RIOT: Selection from the Ann and Mel Schaffer Collection.” Skidmore alumna Ann Schapps Schaffer and her husband, Mel, have been collecting contemporary art for more than 40 years. This selection from their extensive collection includes drawings, photographs and sculpture from such leading artists as John Baldessari, John Chamberlain, Robert Gober, Vik Muniz and Cindy Sherman. At the thematic center of the exhibit is Arnold Odermatt’s crashed Volkswagen photograph “Stansstad” (1958). A Swiss traffic policeman, Odermatt photographed hundreds of car wrecks, taking both the official photographs and a second set for himself — eerie, carefully composed images that, in their combination of formal precision and violent imagery, reveal scenes of discomfiting beauty. Expanding on Odermatt’s film-noir-like photography, “RIOT” brings together artworks that, taken together, form a loose narrative of tension, politics and social strife.
“The Schaffers have collected for many years, and their interest in social tensions and political themes is what draws this collection together — and what makes it very interesting to us as a teaching museum,” said the Tang’s Dayton Director John Weber, who welcomed the opportunity to bring works from the collection to the museum in conjunction with Ann’s 50th Skidmore reunion.
As early supporters of emerging artists, the Schaffers have collected works by a number of artists who subsequently became very well known. Two artists featured in “RIOT,” Cindy Sherman and John Chamberlain, recently had major retrospectives in New York at the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim, respectively.
Also opening on May 31 and running through the end of July is “Twisted Domestic,” a student-curated exhibition that investigates our complex relationships with home. Exploring how the home can be a site of charged relationships, some of the works on view address aspects of loss, longing and disappointment. Others transform common household objects to recapture the quirks and distortions of childhood imagination. Installed on the Tang’s mezzanine, “Twisted Domestic” includes works from the museum’s collection by Marek Cecula, Julia Jacquette, Robert Lazzarini, Michael Mode, George Segal, Dean Snyder, George Stoll and Jil Weinstock. The exhibition is curated by Alexander Unkovic, class of 2012, the Tang’s Eleanor Linder Winter intern.
The Tang Museum is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday, closed on Mondays and major holidays, and open until 9 p.m. Thursdays. Now in its 12th year, the Tang Museum hosts some 40,000 visitors annually, ranging from local students who visit through programs with area schools to museum-goers from around the globe. Continued...
Source: www.saratogian.com
Bouncing its way to Britain: Giant RedBall artwork turns heads from Taipei to St Louis...and now does the same in Paignton - Daily Mail
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It has made appearances around the world - turning heads in Taipei, Chicago and Abu Dhabi.
Wherever it has gone, the RedBall by artist Kurt Perschke has become a public spectacle stopping people and traffic in the street.
And now, it is doing the same in Devon - the latest stop on the giant ball's world tour.
Internationally-renowned artist Kurt Perschke's RedBall has intrigued people all over the world and is now doing the same in Paignton, Devon
The famous RedBall has shown up in Paignton, where the iconic RedBall has appeared to become wedged into the seafront esplanade.
And the travelling sculpture could also be drifting to a town or city close to you as it tours the rest of the country.
As part of the Jubilee weekend celebrations, the artwork will also visit the towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham, as well as a number of other destinations in the South West.
Keep pushing: The 250lb RedBall is inflated at every site where it is displayed, and has squeezed its way into spaces the world over
Kurt Perschke's artwork is already proving a hit in Devon, where it will tour around before making its way to London's South Bank
Making himself comfortable: Artist Kurt Perschke with his head-turning creation on the Devon seafront
And after touring there, the RedBall project will finally end up by the banks of the River Thames as it becomes wedged on London’s South Bank.
Whatever you do though, make sure you don't think of kicking this ball, as the super-sized artwork weighs in at a colossal 250lbs.
Instead, artist Mr Perschke explains his hope that the piece will leave people 'stunned' in the street:
'You're drawn in by this big beautiful thing.
The RedBall project, pictured here in Chicago, has attracted attention wherever it has ended up
Pictured in Taipei smashed between two buildings, the RedBall frequently drew traffic to a standstill
Snapping it up: The RedBull is the subject of thousands of photographs wherever it is displayed, such as here in Chicago
'The deliberate charisma of the piece [is that] it brings people in.
'And if someone drives by and sees it and doesn't know it's art but is stunned - that's brilliant.
'Other people want to come up and there's this really magnetic thing that goes on... They want to play with it. They want to jump into it. They're engaging immediately and of course it's play...but playing is also serious business.'
In each of the locations around Britain where the artwork will be on display, the RedBall will be inflated on site.
Don't kick it! A Toronto schoolboy larks around with the giant ball, which weighs in at 250lbs
An aerial shot shows the Ball perched above pedestrians on La Salle Bridge in Chicago
The iconic artwork has been displayed at locations across the world, and turned heads wherever it has gone, such as in El Bruc, Spain (left), and in Barcelona (right)
And in some cases in the past, it's been hoisted by cherry pickers and city workers scaling buildings and bridges to put it into place.
But for Mr Perschke, it's not just about the huge spectacle of the RedBall - but what it symbolises.
'It's about imagination and where it's going and imagining where it might be,' he explained.
'People take it on. They start thinking about where it's going to go, where it could go, cities it's been to. Each city has a story and it's a story around the globe, and I think people connect to that.'
Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
Its kinda cool, but then we'll find out its getting some ridiculous amount of EU funding and then it won't be so cool anymore.
- Barry, Great Britain - (ex) Lifetime Tory Voter, 03/6/2012 23:13
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