River

A central aspect of my work is contrast, in material and concept. I began combining images and objects inspired by punk \u27zines and outsider art. I went on to earn an MFA, but my undergraduate degree in Biology also inspired me - I began using found materials after a Conservation Corps job fishing colorful trash from streams. Growing up in an educated military family, I was intrigued by humanity’s potential for creativity, measured against its penchant for destruction and cruelty. My appreciation of humor and absurdity in art and life is ongoing. Juxtaposing disparate elements mirrors the layering of experience creating the self. I invite the viewer to add new interpretations to the connections I make. My “River” assemblage was commissioned by a hospital renovation program, through a call for art from the brokerage company Corporate Art Force. The hospital liked my earlier “Bitter Buds” hanging assemblage, where I contrasted native cultural materials of found wood and bark with EuroAmerican metal parts fallen from cars. That piece was created for a the “Bitter” Valentine’s show at Prove Collective in Duluth, and I used the metal to depict the bitter-sensing region of the tongue. The hospital’s interest was in the meditative and healing aspects of nature, so I constructed the “River” out of found wood and bark, ironically heat-treated and varnish-sealed to take any stray life out of it

(No) We, I, Myself and Them?

This is an outcome of a practice-based research project that revisits concepts and contents of Eastern traditional art via contemporary digital visualisation technology. The Eastern concept of multi-perspective and the endless hand scroll are explored through digital filmmaking, video compositing and virtual camera, depths and particle systems and mixed with life recorded video footage. The video art animation is presented on wall-mounted flat screen displays as video painting and is an intercultural remediation, genre mix and remake of the ancient Chinese hand scroll Along the River During the Qingming Festival by the Song dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan capturing the daily life of people and the landscape of on old Chinese capital. This old master piece is adopted into a contemporary manner by using contemporary and historical documentary video footage of Tianamen Square in Beijing and presents excerpts from the poem “Massacre” of the Chinese author Liao Yiwu commenting on Tiananmen Square incidents in 1989 as a reflection on the conflicting relationship between the individual and society struggling between tradition and cultural progress and global influences

New Exhibition Opens in Wriston Art Galleries Jan. 17

Iowa City-based photographer Sandra Dyas delivers the opening lecture in the latest Wriston Art Center Galleries exhibition Friday, Jan. 17 at 6 p.m. in the Wriston Art Center auditorium. The exhibition runs through March 16. A reception follows Dyas’ remarks, which is free and open to the public. The exhibition includes: • Kohler Gallery: Dyas presents photographs and videos titled “my eyes are not shut.” Her work is informed by her interest in recording life “as she sees it” with careful attention to light and peoples’ relationships with their environments. A lecturer in art at Cornell College, Dyas’ book “Down to the River: Portraits of Iowa Musicians” was published in 2007. • Hoffmaster Gallery: Leslie Smith III presents “Opposing Dysfunction.” Smith uses abstract forms on canvas and paper to communicate stories about conflict and power within interpersonal relationships. He is an assistant professor of painting and drawing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. • Leech Gallery: “Out of Place: The Obsolescence of Artifacts,” a culmination of student research in Assistant Professor of Art Ben Tilghman’s seminar “The Art of Stuff: Thing Theory and Art History.” Student in the seminar selected an art object from the Wriston’s permanent collection, contemplating how recent developments in philosophy, archaeology and critical theory might impact how we respond to the “thingness” of the art piece — its materiality, status as commodity, varied functions and resistance to human mastery

Flash@Hebburn Urban Art in the New Century

The publication of Flash@Hebburn, explores the creation of the public art installation Flash@Hebburn featuring light and electricity, by Charles Quick, on the banks of the River Tyne at Hebburn Riverside Park in South Tyneside, which spanned a period of seven and a half years and was inaugurated on March 9th 2009. It extensively documents the testing, making and installing of a public art installation that resembles a technical functional placement, which serves to evoke a largely post-industrial site without resorting to nostalgia, while strongly relating to the community where it is placed. Jonthan Vickery’s essay, Infrastructures: Creating Flash@Hebburn, places the work not only in its context of site and its relation to the audience but also in the development of an art world discourse on new urban arts. This is supported by an interview with the artist by Dr John Wood, Henry Moore Institute which discusses the project as a piece of art work in relationship to other contemporary works the artist and others have carried out

Activism, Fly Fishing, and Fiction: A Conversation with David James Duncan

This interview with David James Duncan is part of a series of conversations with contemporary western writers about the ethical and cultural implications of nature writing

A First-Person Theory of Documentation

Purpose To first articulate and then illustrate a descriptive theoretical model of documentation (i.e., document creation) suitable for analysis of the experiential, first-person perspective. Design/methodology/approach Three models of documentation in the literature are presented and synthesized into a new model. This model is then used to understand the findings from a phenomenology-of-practice study of the work of seven visual artists as they each created a self-portrait, understood here as a form of documentation. Findings A number of themes are found to express the first-person experience of art-making in these examples, including communicating, memories, reference materials, taking breaks and stepping back. The themes are discussed with an eye toward articulating what is shared and unique in these experiences. Finally, the themes are mapped successfully to the theoretical model. Research limitations/implications The study involved artists creating self-portraits, and further research will be required to determine if the thematic findings are unique to self-portraiture or apply as well to art-making, to documentation generally, etc. Still, the theoretical model developed here seems useful for analyzing documentation experiences. Practical implications As many activities and tasks in contemporary life can be conceptualized as documentation, this model provides a valuable analytical tool for better understanding those experiences. This can ground education and management decisions for those involved. Originality/value This paper makes conceptual and empirical contributions to document theory and the study of the information behavior of artists, particularly furthering discussions of information and document experience

El río de la Memoria

Artistas participantes: José Cala Fontquernie, Frank-Joachim Grossmann, Karen Pullich, Alexander Pawlik, Andreina Scanu, Aiman HH, Ángeles de la Torre, Anna Jonnson, Arnaud Velten, David Toral, César Ripoll, Catherine Weber, Dieter Zurnieden, Elena Toral, Eva Guil, José Luzardo, Félix Hochreither, Fernando Navarro, Hecharry & Errera, Alias Lilo, Inmaculada Cunill, Iván Tovar, Jaime Gil Arévalo, Janette Fu, Jaime Rodríguez, Joe Quixote, José María Baena, Jeff Kunkle, Carmen Aparcero, Lourdes Murillo, María Cañas, Macarena Nieves Cáceres, María Rosa Hidalgo, Bruna Tovani, Paulina Munugarren, Emilio Sola, Paka Antúnez, Miguel Jiménez, Quique Macía, Reyes Muñoz, Kurt Keller, Rocío Arregui, Rinat Etshak, Tomás Cordero, Ùna Clancy, Eva María Espejo, Virginia López y Jesús Algov

Two rivers: form and development in Edward McGuire's "Source"

McGuire’s ‘Source: Reflections on Neil Gunn’s novel Highland River’ is a key work in the composer’s output, bringing together various strands of his characteristic working methods and embodying a distinctive approach to formal development. The author seeks to locate the work with reference to some characteristics of Celtic culture and to aspects of 20th century modernism in music, but also employs Hugh MacDiarmid’s poem ‘By Wauchopside’ in an investigation of the psychological, developmental and aesthetic implications of the musical work