October Issue 2001
Eva Carter Gallery in Charleston, SC, Features Sculptures by Gretchen Lothrop
The Eva Carter Gallery in downtown Charleston, SC,
will be hosting a collection of new sculpture by Gretchen Lothrop,
Oct. 5-31. Lothrop's Mind Things = Messages from the Cosmos
is new sculpture inspired by old minds.
Fifteen hundred years ago, Cassiodoros said "when we commit injustice we are without music."Certainly a worthy remark in our current, sometimes ugly and brutal world. His contemporary Boethius (480-524) put it more positively when he said, "the soul of the universe is united by musical concord." With this collection of sculpture Lothrop reflects on a few of the great minds from the distant past who have helped her make sense of the freefall of modern life and find a continuity and power in her work.
Don't expect any likenesses. Lothrop says, " What I am after is that same feeling of right-ness which I first felt when the shimmering surface of molten metal answer-ed for me the Cartesian question, where do I begin?"
It is important to realize that art and science were not always separate. Nor were these disciplines separate from the living of life. Boethius believed that there are both ethical and harmonic qualities in music. Perfect sound is truth. In the 6th century BC, Pythagoras was the first to analyze the structure of sounds. Although he is now remembered by most as the footnote which accompanies the right triangle equation, more importantly he postulated an understanding of the universe based on sound - the sound of planets moving through space in harmony. Pythagoras' notion that the universe is the harmonic manifestation of various mathematical ratios reappears over the centuries. Kepler (1571-1631) pursued it, as did Newton (1642-1727). If thought of as waves, music continues to be the universal structure. Consider radio waves which come from astonishingly distant parts of the universe, and the recently proposed unified string theory. The culmination of these centuries of thought is the fabulous realization that every structure in the universe and every atom in all those structures is composed of waves which are continuously in motion. As Lothrop makes sculptures she tries to materialize in a beautiful way this thing which is not visible in itself.
Eratosthenes, circa. 250 BC was able to calculate the circumference of the earth using a stick and his mind. The remark that to create is to make something of nothing is applicable. The hugeness of his achievement has been a formative inspiration to Lothrop. As she makes this group of sculptures in honor of the minds which are her guides, she hopes her admiration for the intuitive and analytical power of these pioneers will be clearly heard.
For more information check our SC Commercial Gallery listings or call the gallery at 843/722-0506.
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Carolina Arts
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