2001: An Odyssey Between Place & Space,
Curated by Ramsey Lofton

October 6- November 10, 2001

Left: Jason Hughes, "twentyfive twenty," pin heads, wall installation, 30" x 40"
photo by Jennifer Murray

Right: Yvonne Boogaerts,
"Oilpan," 26" x 30,"
cibachrome color print

Opening reception:
Saturday, October 6, 6- 8 PM

 
2001: An Odyssey Between Place and Space, to be held examines contemporary art that reflects the convergence between technology, the environment and human consciousness.

Guest curator Ramsey Lofton has brought together fourteen artists from around the country to exhibit artwork that explores a range of work from the small, but fixed locations within DNA to the vanishing undeveloped, open spaces in our landscape. Using artists for a barometric reading on the social processing of our super-charged evolution in science and technology, Lofton presents an exhibition that shows vulnerability and wonderment, contradiction and warning, curiosity and possibility.

Participating artists are: Mark Abrahamson, WA; Lorenza Lucchi Basili, Bologna, Italy; Yvonne Boogaerts, RI; Nicholas Doriss, MA; Audrey Goldstein, MA; Bill Hill, FL; Andrea Hoelscher, MA; Jason Hughes, MD; Leigh Ann Langwell, NM; Stephan Loidot, MI; Donna Meeks, TX; Theresa Pfarr, OH; Amy Lixl-Purcell, NC; and Kim Youngberg, WI.

In conjunction with Hera's October/November exhibition, 2001: An Odyssey Between Place & Space, curator Ramsey Lofton will host Creative Communities: Interdisciplinary Partnerships Using Art in a Social Context. This workshop is open to the community to be held at the gallery on Saturday, October 6, from 10 AM to 12 PM.

Creative Communities will present a pilot program, interLACE, being launched by the University of New Mexico's College of Fine Arts. This program promotes community-building projects that utilize the arts, artists, and art centers as stewards for creative communities. Lofton's workshop at Hera will examine how artists work as agents for social change, and will cover topics such as approaching professional organizations, understanding jargon used by other professions, developing capacity building and long range program initiatives, and interdisciplinary team dynamics. The workshop is geared for professionals in the arts, non-profit, and business sectors and is intended to encourage collaborations between these sectors.

Lofton has extensive experience as an artist, arts educator, and arts advocate. She holds an MFA in Visual Arts from Rutgers University, a MAT from Rhode Island College, and a BFA from University of Rhode Island. Currently she is the Outreach Program Manager for the College of Arts, University of New Mexico. She is the owner of ARTscape, an arts consulting firm that promotes interdisciplinary collaborative projects between artists, communities, and organizations, and she has taught art at every level from elementary through college. Lofton has exhibited her work nationally and has curated several exhibitions at Hera.

According to Lofton, the artworks in the exhibition reflect the pressures of our time, and which serves as predictors of contemporary culture. Because a large part of our culture is focused on the rapidity of the development of technology, Lofton developed a theme that responds to its use.

Lofton explains, "I was looking for artwork which related to the idea of place and space. Place represents the real and and concrete, whereas technology represents the abstraction of space. Much of the work in the show contains references to these ideas: from genetics to information advancement to technology that refers to space travel-the show describes this range between place and space."

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In this exhibition, Lofton sought artwork that she characterizes as "truly hybrid." Works in the show are neither completely handcrafted nor completely technologically generated, but are instead "low-tech art about high-tech subjects."

The exhibition focuses on work that is thoughtful, but does not make overt or alarmist predictions. Amy Lixl-Purcell's The Well, a floor installation utilizing a 48" x 48" duralambda (a film transfer process) source image of a well with accompanying water sounds and spoken text, resonates like poetry. Lixl-Purcell's installation translates a personal experience through varied technological processes that draw the viewer into the abstracted space of the imaged well.

Jason Hughes' wall installation, Untitled, contains 5,500 stainless steel pins to represent an organic, mathematical formation that operates as a three-dimensional drawing. Each steel pin designates a specific location while the overall composition seems to float off the wall, giving a sense of breath and movement in space.

Mark Abrahamson's aerial photographs of landscapes and watersheds create enigmatic abstractions that are both subversive and deceptive in their beauty.

Right: Mark Abrahamson, "Sweet Tea," cibachrome photo, 19 1/2" x 12 3/4"

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