May Issue 2000
Watauga County Arts Council Gallery in Boone, NC, Presents Two New Exhibits
During the month of May at the Jones House Community Center in Boone, NC, the Watauga County Arts Council will be hosting two exhibitions of work by Alex Horstman and Chris Davenport.
The Mazie Jones Gallery features recent works by ASU Assistant Professor of Art , Alex Horstman. Horstman will be showing selected works from three different series: The Shimmering series combines aspects of subatomic particulate behavior, endangered animals, and the relative notion of surface. Layering is the mechanical construct of surfaces. Surfaces represent relative perceptions of what is real. Reality is based on what we perceive pertinent to our daily surroundings.
At the sub atomic level there are no names for objects based on their surficial qualities. Particles functioning as waves determine the surface qualities we see and perceive at the macroscopic level. These particles and their wave-like behavior are the foundations which give us our sense of reality. Should there be a shift in phasic behavior, this reality would change. In other words, what we perceive as 'real' is based on the surface we see and experience. The actual essence of surface is a series of particles moving in waves.
Look to the big ocean. With winds blowing, we see small waves crenulating larger waves. These smaller waves break down to wispy sprays. The surface these waves represent, as well as the surfaces we experience in our daily surroundings, are in fact a conglomeration of individual particles, moving in wave-like manner. So what we see and truly experience is a shimmering, a massing of all waves. Imagine a phase shift that would make it possible to allow our hand to pass through solid wood. Theoretically, it is possible.
The Aikido Series combines images of endangered species of butterflies with the handed down tradition of Aikido, a martial arts form. There is a danger in our society to negate beliefs and lifestyles that do not 'fit' the dominant definition of what is 'proper'. Visual elements behave as metaphors representing fragile aspects of the human condition. Technology and dogmatism, when misunderstood and unwisely used, threaten fragile aspects, because we believe if elements do not behave in an efficient, controllable (relative to the ones who believe they are in control) manner, they are useless and at worst dangerous. Negation of belief systems and lifestyles is a result of insecurity. Insecurity is a result of losing touch with what is humane and integral for our continued existence. The belief is, by eliminating unwantables, not because they bodily threaten us, but more so cause us to contemplate and question our participation in the destruction of difference, we can continue to live in states of denial and not own up to our own self-demise. The practice of Aikido is the redirection of energy. Non-adversarial protection by the redirecting of negative force, is achieved by finding the balance: yours as well as your adversary.
Quiet Sirens: Persistent Warnings from the Previous Millennium visually conflates imagery created around the turn of the first millennium with contemporary, social signifiers that mark affects of human behavior on an intimate and global scale. Issues of physical and mental health, gender bias, environmental concerns, and economic/racial inequalities find platform in iconic representation. The bridging of millennia offer a retrospect on the progress and regress of eurocentric perceptions perpetrated more and more globally as humankind grinds toward homogeneity. This series provides a glimpse of these sentinels that guard our prejudices as we exchange one for another ignoring the warnings that we have not changed and stand the risk of moving toward another dark age.
The Open Door Gallery features Clay and Wood, an exhibition of functional pottery, wooden carvings, and rustic furniture by ceramic and woodworking artist Chris Davenport. Davenport will be exhibiting stoneware and salt glaze pottery in the Cardew/Leach tradition. Also on exhibit will be furniture in Cedar, Pine, Oak, and Coastal Cypress, along with carvings inspired by the traditional masks and bowls of the Haidas of Coastal Southeast Alaska and Canada.
Across the hall from the Open Door Gallery, the Senior Gallery contains works by area senior adult artists as well as an assortment of prints. And, throughout the building, one will find an assortment of works currently participating in the Arts Council's award-winning Arts Placement Service.
May also marks the unveiling of the Sherry Edwards Memorial Outdoor Sculpture Competition winning piece by Kyle Lusk, on the front lawn of the Jones House Community Center.
The galleries of the Jones House Community Center are sponsored by the Watauga County Arts Council with support from Grassroots funds from the North Carolina Arts Council.
For further information check our NC Institutional
Gallery listings or call the Arts Council at 828/264-1789.
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