Mixed Media

'Exquisite Corpus' explores the boundaries of art and the body

Bodies -- inside and outside, observed, exposed, reflected,           hacked to pieces or otherwise taken apart, deconstructed and reconstructed -- are the subject of the student-organized Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art exhibition "Exquisite Corpus: Interacting with the Fragmented Body," through June 15.

The exhibition was curated by the History of Art Majors Society as its annual showcase at the Johnson. The students also prepared an exhibition catalog, wrote essays on the artwork and brought guest artists STELARC and Vlatka Horvat to campus for public talks.

Society members Sarah Humphreville and Stef Hirsch, both fourth-year dual majors in fine arts and the history of art, led an Art for Lunch tour of the exhibition May 1.

Interaction is a key feature, with film and video, Polaroid photography, and Internet-based works among 2-D and sculptural elements.

"In contemporary art right now, there are no limits, no boundaries," Hirsch said. "We wanted to show contemporary work, and show that art can be anything, maybe even vulgar."

The title and concept refer to the Exquisite Corpse, a Surrealist exercise in which three artists independently draw a section of a body: head, torso and legs. In "Exquisite Corpus," viewers are also welcome to play.

Read the full article here.

82 and Still Painting

"We're living in a total illusion here on earth for better or worse, but whatever is beyond, that's where I'm looking... to the reality behind it all," says George Rhoads (pictured, right). He's talking about his landscape oil & acrylic paintings, his "chosen profession" as he puts it. But isn't he most famous for his huge moving sculptures, which appear at the Corning Museum of Glass, the ScienCenter in Ithaca, the Port Authority in NYC, and around the world? "In the 60's is when I started making the sculptures, and that provided me with kind of a living from then on, so I was able to paint quite a bit." Those paintings hang in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and in the collections of Leonard Bernstein, and Lawrence Tish, among others. "Commercially, that hasn't done me a lot of good," says Rhoads. But painting is his first love. His rare solo exhibit, Landscapes of the Fingerlakes, is at Ithaca's Community School of Music and Arts through March 28.

Rhoads moved to the Ithaca area in 1970, in part because he was tired of living in New York. "I paint what's around me, and I was tired of painting the city," he says. Now his adopted home has named the month of March in his honor. In proclaiming March to be "George Rhoads Month," Ithaca mayor Carolyn Peterson cited, among other things, Rhoads' "international reputation as a painter, sculptor, and designer of kinetic art as well as being one of the first North American origami masters, and a yoga teacher." Rhoads says of the proclamation "it's rather gratifying, but strange... It's fun. I feel that I really belong here in Ithaca."

A few years back, the late Fred Rogers brought a crew to Ithaca to film an episode visiting George Rhoads' studio and looking at his fanciful rolling-ball sculptures. "That was a great day when he and his crew came to do the show, really unforgettable" says Rhoads. "Mr. Rogers was exactly as he seems on TV, a marvelous character."

The area landscapes in Rhoads' rare solo exhibition were all completed within the last three years, some of which had languished for years before being completed for this exhibit. (Pictured, left: Lake Afternoon, up for a raffle to benefit CSMA.)

He'll give an artist's talk Sunday, March 9 at 2pm at the CSMA gallery. He says he'll ask those attending what they want to know about... his career in general or the specific creation of the landscapes on display.

The exhibit's "gala opening" 5-8pm tonight (3/7) is timed to coincide with Gallery Night of Ithaca. Landscapes of the Finger Lakes runs  through March 28 at the Community School of Music and Arts, 330 E. State Street, Ithaca. Gallery is open Monday through Friday, 10am - 8pm.

LISTEN AGAIN: Hear my interview with George Rhoads online.

Read an article by Peggy Haines about George Rhoads in Life in the Finger Lakes magazine.

Visit George Rhoads' website.

--Gregory Keeler
gkeeler@wskg.org

 

New exhibit at Alfred University

“Undertow: Counter Currents and Excavations” opens in Alfred University’s Fosdick-Nelson Gallery on Friday, Jan. 25 with a talk by the artists at 6 p.m. followed by a reception from 7-9 p.m. The events are open to the public free of charge.

“Undertow” is an exhibition of sculpture and installations by emerging artists from Brooklyn and Chicago — Ben Fain, Hope Hilton, Scott Lawrence, Andrew Scott Ross — running through Wednesday, Feb. 20.

The show is curated by Sharon McConnell, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery director.

Fein, artist/sculptor, defines his work at in the “experimental mode.” Hilton, from Brooklyn, says as an artist she “curates, collaborates, designs, writes and walks.” Lawrence is a ceramic artist who describes his “method” as “to apply paint and wipe it off, partially or fully, and repaint repeatedly.” Ross, of Brooklyn, is a painter/sculptor.

The Fosdick-Nelson Gallery is located in Harder Hall in the School of Art & Design; open hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays, 1 to 3 p.m. weekends; the Gallery is closed University holidays. For more information, contact McConnell at 607.871.2149, or at mcconnells@alfred.edu.

AIDS Memorial Quilt on display in Ithaca

Panels from the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be displayed in the Emerson Suites at Ithaca College November 26–28. Viewing times will be from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The display will conclude on Wednesday with a panel discussion, “Faces of AIDS,” and the ceremonial closing of the quilt. Sponsored by the Ithaca College Action for AIDS group, the events are free and open to the public.

A poignant memorial and powerful tool for education as well as a work of art, the AIDS Memorial Quilt was started in San Francisco in 1987 by the NAMES Project Foundation to increase public awareness of AIDS and provide a creative means for healing. Each of the quilt’s panels was sewn and decorated by friends and loved ones in commemoration of a person whose life was lost to AIDS. The quilt has been visited by over 15 million people in displays worldwide. It currently has more than 46,000 panels and 91,000 names, including those of actor Rock Hudson, tennis champion Arthur Ashe, clothing designer Tina Chow, singer Freddie Mercury and NASCAR driver Tim Richmond.

In addition to the public viewing, classes and other groups can schedule a facilitated viewing of the quilt by trained volunteers. To make arrangements, contact Russell Martin, assistant director of the Center for Student Leadership and Involvement, at 607-274-3222 or rjmartin@ithaca.edu. 

Video surveillance as art at Cornell

Visitors who came to the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art to watch monks creating a sand mandala for the recent visit of the Dalai Lama were themselves part of a new art form translating movement into sound.

As they clustered around to view the mandala or moved in or out of the room, cameras in the ceiling tracked their movements. The behavior of the crowd triggered subtle changes in the background sounds playing in the room.

The sounds were created by professional sound designer Ron Riddle, who combined monastery chants, Tibetan bowls, bells, chimes, piano and guitar, and created different tracks to reflect different audience behaviors. In some cases, as when people entered, a heartbeat sound was overlaid.

Read the full article here.

"Earth Pattern" exhibit at Cornell

The Mann Library Gallery's November/December exhibit, "Earth Pattern," features what Trumansburg artist Jay Hart calls "terrain art." Starting with GIS (geographical information system) elevation data, Hart creates sharply detailed images of places both exotic and familiar, including polar landscapes and deserts, low-relief terrain and major ranges, and the scatter of mankind's markings, sometimes adding color to emphasize changes in elevation or overlaying satellite imagery. The results are rendered as large-format inkjet prints showing areas of the Earth's surface ranging from 100 to 1,500 kilometers across.

The exhibit is on display through January 10th in the gallery on the second floor of the Mann Library.  A reception with refreshments will be held Tuesday, Nov. 13, 5-6 p.m. The exhibit and the reception are free and open to the public. For further information, call 607-255-5406.

GIS Day celebration

In connection with its Earth Pattern exhibit, Mann Library will hold a GIS Day celebration Wednesday, Nov. 14, 1-3 p.m., during National Geographic Society's Geography Awareness Week (Nov. 11-17). Campus organizations and departments using GIS will present displays about their work; at 3 p.m. keynote speaker Jonnell Allen will describe her work as community geographer in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.

Read the full article here.