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Manifest Creative Research Gallery: DEUS EX MACHINA | HOLDING ON - Nadia Sablin | PROJECTIONS - 29 Sept 2012 to 26 Oct 2012 Current Exhibition |
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Nathalie Bertrams, Butterfly, 2012
pigment print on etching paper 23.6 x 35.4 in |
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Manifest launches its 9th season with three photo-based exhibitions: DEUS EX MACHINA (guest curated by Dennis Kiel) + HOLDING ON (a solo exhibit of photographs by Nadia Sablin) + PROJECTIONS (an all-video exhibition/screening) DEUS EX MACHINA (god from the machine) An International Competitive Exhibit of Photographic Art Revealing the Divine Main Gallery Opening Friday, September 28, 6-9p.m. Guest Curated by Dennis Kiel Chief Curator at The Light Factory in Charlotte, North Carolina Sponsored in part by FOTOFOCUS. Deus Ex Machina is an exhibit assembled from international submissions considered on a competitive basis by a broad jury and curatorial process. The call for entries sought submissions by artists using photography and the camera/machine to discover, document, and inspire experiences of the sublime (or the divine). A popular story proving the mythical power of photography is the one which recounts indigenous natives' reactions to the process of having their image taken and reproduced on paper. They believed by taking their picture the camera was stealing people's souls. Of course modern society is numb to such apparent superstition. However, some truth may be at its core - the camera captures a unique transfer of light from the surface of the individual, and freezes it in a two-dimensional stasis, unmoving and unliving, a fragment of time and light. We are beholden to the primary source of light in our lives, the sun, and whether we admit it or not it is an unquestionable deity, a giver of life, and a destroyer. With this exhibit Manifest explores how photography can not only capture divinity (using light), but also how it produces art objects that somehow replicate the living energy, the positive life-centered sublime and perhaps momentary experience, despite its non-living transitory nature as an art object. For this competitive project, Manifest received 316 entries from 106 artists from around the world. Our six-member jury winnowed the submissions down to a pool of semifinalists, from which guest-curator Dennis Kiel selected the final 13 works for inclusion. The exhibit features works by artists from Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Johannesburg, South Africa. Guest Curator, Dennis Kiel states: "With this competition, I was extremely curious to see how the photographers would deal with this theme, one that asked them to “discover, document, and inspire experiences of the sublime (or the divine).” With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the work and the wide variety of approaches offered by the photographers. Although narrowing down the list was not an easy task, I’m sure the visitors to this exhibition will be as pleased as I am with the final results... All of the winning entries have the qualities that I look for in a good photograph. They are visually engaging, thought provoking, and in different ways, challenge the viewer to take a closer look and ultimately make those discoveries they never thought were there." IN THE GALLERY: Starting the evening of September 28th visitors to Manifest will notice some major changes to the gallery. Subtle but significant updates will enhance the overall experience of our exhibitions. For this first of Manifest's nine exhibit periods, Deus Ex Machina in the Main Gallery, will lead into the Drawing Room and an encapsulating solo exhibit of works by New York based, Russian-American photographer Nadia Sablin. Then, leading across the hallway, the Parallel Space will serve as Manifest's black box video screening theater, devoted to works selected for PROJECTIONS, Manifest's first all-video exhibition. This first exhibition set also marks the launch of the new Manifest Curatorial Talks to be led by Tim Parsley in his new role as Associate Curator. These once-per exhibit free public events will not be ordinary art historical 'lectures' per se, but rather will provide a guided experience and discussion of the exhibitions on view through the point of view of the philosophy of the Manifest organization. This will give the public new in-depth insight into their neighborhood gallery for the world, nine times each year. The first talk will be Tuesday, October 16th, at 7p.m. Deus Ex Machina features works by: Matthew Albritton Ft Thomas, Kentucky Nathalie Bertrams Johannesburg, South Africa Susan Bryant Clarksville, Tennessee Seder Burns Allen Park, Michigan Bryan Christie New York, New York Bryan Florentin Dallas, Texas Michael Gard Valparaiso, Indiana Marcella Hackbardt Mount Vernon, Ohio Laura Hennessy McDonald, Pennsylvania Bethany Pipkin Greenville, North Carolina Jim Shirey Athens, Ohio PhotoSolo: HOLDING ON Photographs by Nadia Sablin Drawing Room This solo exhibition of eleven of Nadia Sablin's photographs is one of six selected from among 150 proposals submitted for consideration for Manifest's ninth season. Of her work Sablin states: For the past six years, I have been working on an extended photographic series in Russia and United States. Titled Together and Alone, it wascompleted in 2011. This body of work is based on the idea of a search for one’s identity and the pain of separation from childhood. By making portraits of girls and women, I search for a way to reinterpret myself as an adult without losing the magic of childhood. By including photographs from both the former Soviet Union and the United States I am creating a reality whose location is psychological, rather than geographic, in nature. The resulting images are a blend of observation, performance, and autobiographic exploration. As a Russian-born artist, I closely relate to the format of the fairy tale, incorporating it into the imagery of the photographs and into the prose poem that introduces the work: I was conceived, mistakenly, as a twin, although nobody knew this but me. There were two of us, in the womb, identical from our underdeveloped heads to our microscopic toes. She was a Russian girl, just like me, a secretly Jewish Russian girl, prone to emotion, impatient, bookish. She hid. I knew her well before we left. We conspired on hot days in the village, outwitted the demons in the marshes, looked for treasure among the reeds. We parted ways in '92, when I was brought to greener pastures, great-grandmother's pillows and iron skillet in tow. Our life packed in six check-in suitcases, three carry-ons. I was alone here in your new world, so I tried to replicate her, mold her out of my mother, out of American girls, out of mirrors. I search for her in images by Dutch painters, in stories by Marquez and Bulgakov. She lives off drywall, in an attic, in a well; she ascended to heaven, she is a mother by now, she walks the outskirts of St. Petersburg as a whore, she is still a child, while I've grown bigger, and am good at paying my bills on time. She is still breathing magic. She, the other one, is beautiful. Her braid is down to her feet like my aunties'. She brushes her hair one hundred times before bed. A wolf guards her virtue. I see her in the eyes of strangers. Her gestures overtake theirs for a split second, and she is gone before they know what has happened. With my trap, I wait for her to appear there, and if I'm quick enough, if I press the button at the right moment, none of this will be real. We will be together again, she and I, conspirators, sisters, laughers of derisive laughter, whole. Showing a sampling of these images at Manifest as Holding On adds another layer of complication/completion to the series. The gallery’s involvement with drawing and painting, which are both influences on my practice, was a strong impetus for me to propose this exhibit. The location of Manifest in Ohio speaks to the time I spent in the midwest during my formative years. Much of the way I experience the United States and my identity as an American comes from living and going to school in the suburbs of a big Ohio city. Nadia Sablin was born in the Soviet Union and spent her adolescence in the American Midwest. After completing an MFA degree at Arizona State University, she now lives and works in Brooklyn, NY and St. Petersburg, Russia. Her photographs have been shown at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Wall Space gallery and Jen Bekman gallery among many others. PROJECTIONS An International Exhibition of Projected Video-based Work Parallel Space Projections is an exhibit of 13 works assembled from international submissions considered on a competitive basis by a particularly unique and difficult broad jury and curatorial process consisting of 13 different jurors. With this first of its kind exhibit at Manifest the gallery is excited to share various ways in which artists' works are realized and presented simply through projected light. The gallery is considering various scenarios in preparation for the exhibit, including looping all-day single video works on a schedule, back-to-back screenings during specific times each day, weekly screenings, etc. The final schedule has not yet been determined, but will be published on our website exhibits page by the date of the opening. Total playing time for all works combined is approximately 2 hours. Guests will surely want to make several return trips to the gallery to be sure to view the various works in this exhibit. Manifest's Parallel Space gallery is an ideal 'black box' viewing environment, outfitted with an HD projector capable of projecting a wall-sized HD image, driven by a networked Apple mini, wireless keyboard, mouse and trackpad. For this competitive project, Manifest received 179 entries from 104 artists from around the world. Our thirteen-member jury winnowed the submissions down to the pool of thirteen finalists. The exhibit features works by artists from Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Hong Kong, China, and Istanbul, Turkey. PROJECTIONS features works by: Recep Akar Istanbul, Turkey Liam Alexander Brooklyn, New York Sama Alshaibi Tucson, Arizona David Beck Menomonie, Wisconsin Kim Burgas New York, New York Bryan Christie New York, New York Lucas Coffin Fairview Heights, Illinois Ed Midgett Boone, North Carolina Damon Mohl Louisville, Colorado Stefan Petranek Indianapolis, Indiana Hector Rodriguez Hong Kong, China Pierre St-Jacques Brooklyn, New York Danny Warner Manhattan, Kansas |
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