November Issue 2000
SECCA in Winston-Salem, NC, Hosts Three New Exhibits
The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, presents minutiae, through Jan. 12, 2001, an exhibition featuring the work of ten artists from various parts of the United States and Canada who create an array of objects that direct our attention to the smallest of details, the mundane and the discarded-asking us to reconsider all that we take for granted. Also on view through Jan. 12 is The Crossing, a major video and sound installation by acclaimed artist Bill Viola. The third exhibit, on view through Jan. 14 will be Artie Dixon: The Suitable Mr. (W)Right, featuring Chapel Hill-based photographer Artie Dixon who has fashioned a stunning photographic essay on the life and times of Mr. Frank Taylor Wright.
Saran Wrap, wax paper, tape, candy, stones, lingerie, ATMs, tombstones and 450,000 toothpicks - we seldom think twice about the ordinary objects that appear insignificant only until they are unavailable for public consumption. minutiae, is an exhibition featuring the work of ten artists from various parts of the United States and Canada who use these objects to direct attention to minute details often overlooked.
These petty details resurface and command center stage through a range of methodologies and media employed by artists such as Aric Obrosey (NY) who in Rubber Industrial Lace Glove creates elaborate lace patterns on a workman's rubber glove painstakingly cut with a razorblade. Julie Allen (NY) replicates intimate and exotic lingerie and other women's accessories from fragile, temporary and difficult materials: Saran Wrap, wax paper, tape, and candy-even going so far as to making the thread. Charles Krafft (Seattle) studied with the "elderly ladies of the Northwest China Guild to learn the Delft method of porcelain painting. From his porcelain skateboards that include images of Martha Stewart and scenes from old detective movies to the decorative arsenal cast from weapons used in the Balkan war, the artist comments on combat, technology, kitsch and contemporary life by updating this rich Dutch tradition.
Other artists include James Carl (Toronto), Wayne Kusy (Chicago), Robert Lazzarini (NY), Jon Langford (Chicago), Devorah Sperber (NY), David Teachout (NC), and Andy Yoder (NY).
SECCA's Potter Gallery is proud to present The Crossing, a major video and sound installation by acclaimed artist Bill Viola. This multi-channel video projection features sequences of a solitary figure becoming mysteriously and spiritually consumed by fire and water. The images speak to notions of purification, transformation, destruction and regeneration.
The Crossing consists of two large-scale, synchronized video images projected back to back on a single screen that divides the Potter Gallery at its center from floor to ceiling. On each side of the screen, the audience views a solitary figure slowly emerging from the distance, a man walking through the darkness. When his figure fills the large screen, he stops and stands motionless, gazing back at viewers. After a brief pause, a small flame flickers at the man's feet. Simultaneously, on the other side of the screen, a stream of water trickles onto the man's head. The man remains still. Gradually, the figure becomes engulfed in flames, and on the other side, immersed in a deluge of water. Viola's mastery of video and sound draws viewers into the realm of metaphysical experience from which they too emerge, transformed.
In addition to a mid-career retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art which concluded an international tour in Jan. 2000, Viola represented the United States at the 46th Venice Biennale (1995), was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Award (1989), and is represented in the collections of major international museums including: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modem Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Gallery, London, and le' Musee des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Ministere de la Culture, Paris.
Artie Dixon: The Suitable Mr. (W)Right, will be on exhibit through Jan. 14, 2001. Chapel Hill-based photographer Artie Dixon has fashioned a stunning photographic essay on the life and times of Mr. Frank Taylor Wright. Known as "Mr. Snapback", "Hard Roller", and "Cool Daddy" in the areas around Durham, NC, where he lives. Wright daily struts his stuff in his finely appointed and vividly colored suits, hats and shoes. His is the very essence of "styling"and represents a generation and culture that has all but vanished.
The exhibition's 40 photographs capture Mr. Wright in his splendid threads and in the meaningful places where he has worked and lived, offering a portrait of a man whose elegance is his passion, outweighing any social and class barriers.
For further information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call the Center at 336/725-1904 or check out their web site at (http://www.secca.org).
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