Georgia State’s Welch School Gallery Showcases The Relationships Between Humans And Nature
Superstudio, Niagra,1970, Lithograph.
Courtesy of Jesse Penridge
On Sept. 24, a new exhibit will open up at the Welch School Gallery at Georgia State University. A pair of exhibitions in dialogue about human relationships with nature: “MaDora Frey: Stargaze” and “A Facsimile of Events.” They will run concurrently through Nov. 13.
Curator and Ernest G. Welch School of Art Gallery director Cynthia Farnell, along with Atlanta-based artist MaDora Frey, spoke with “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes about the exhibitions.
Frey said the exhibition has been postponed twice due to unforeseen circumstances. The first time was due to the destruction of the adjacent building; the second was due to COVID-19. She and Farnell are happy to finally be seeing it go up this fall.
“The timing is perfect because this is the moment when people have sought respite in the outdoors, and thematically it’s completely in line with what’s going on in people’s lives,” said Frey.
She creates patterns with available rubble, and pairs it with manufactured materials such as dichroic glass, mirrors, and metallic fabrics with fragile blooms and chunks of wood in impermanent arrangements.
“Superstudio was a 1960s Italian art collective who were interested in using architecture as a discipline to create social change. Their projects were conceptual and intended to be read as metaphors rather than projects to actually be built. Their lithograph ‘Niagara’ in the ‘Facsimile of Events’ is the envisioning of an immense mirror-line basin installed on the American side of Niagara Falls. Although it is possible to build this structure, why would we? Just because humans have the technology to dominant the Earth’s surface doesn’t mean we should. Superstudio and the other artists in ‘A Facsimile of Events’ share a preoccupation with the sublime landscape experience that is echoed in MaDora’s installation, ‘Stargaze’,” said Farnell.
Works by Superstudio (as seen above) and others will be on view in Welch School Gallery in ‘A Facsimile of Events,’ curated by New York-based curator Jesse Penridge.
Admission is free with timed e-tickets, which can be at Eventbrite. Masks and a minimum of 6 feet of distancing are required. A maximum of 10 visitors per 30-minute time slot is permitted in the galleries.
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