Archives of October 23, 2014
Erwin Olaf’s works depict the unspoken. His stylized and skilfully quoted visual worlds address taboos, social conflicts, and middle-class narrow-mindedness – themes that he disguises aesthetically in order to unsettle the viewer. Bar Barbette showcases the series Fall (2008), which presents adolescent portraits separated by austerely composed still lifes set in pale gold-coloured interiors of the late 1950s.
Posed before curtains and wallpaper reminiscent of the living rooms of the post-war generation, the adolescents seem out of place. They confront the viewer with contradictory emotions and their as yet undefined corporality, as though they felt entirely unobserved. Coolness and physical strength are just as much on display as vulnerability and apathy; subtle and unbridled eroticism radiates from their flawless young bodies. With a similar atmosphere, the film Le Dernier Cri (2006) slowly progresses towards a discomforting climax that reveals the terror concealed beneath the veil of the bourgeoisie.
EXHIBITION
Ewin Olaf, Fall
Until October 30th 2014
Bar Babette
Karl-Marx-Allee 36
10178 Berlin
Germany
Daily from 6:00pm
An exhibition project by WAGNER + PARTNER with Month of Photography.
http://galerie-wagner-partner.com
http://www.barbabette.com
http://www.erwinolaf.com
HOT SPRINGS, S.D. – How does the way we are raised impact our self-expression? This Native Americans’ Day, Monday, October 9, Wind Cave explores this question within the theme “Culture Through Art: A Celebration of Native American Expression.”
There are multiple activities throughout the day, starting in the Visitor Center auditorium at 9 a.m. with a welcome from park Superintendent Leigh Welling and National Park Service (NPS) Native American Affairs Liaison, Dorothy FireCloud. An enrolled member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, FireCloud is the first person to hold her position within the NPS, working on a national stage to support the agency’s commitment to tribal relations and policy implementation.
At 9:30 a.m., Jhon Goes in Center, an Oglala Lakota metalsmith who played a seminal role in the revival and adaptation of plains metalwork, will give a presentation entitled, “Another America and a Regional Landscape.” This talk highlights the Black Hills as a pivotal cultural and creative landscape for Indigenous peoples.
Following Goes in Center, at 10:30 a.m., award-winning fashion designer Tosa Two Heart will discuss her journey in design and the aesthetic influences of her contemporary clothing designs in a talk titled, “Lakota Storytelling Through Fashion Design.”
The dedication of the sculpture “Cȟaŋgléška-Wakȟaŋ”, or “Sacred Hoop,” will occur at 11:30 a.m. with artist Kelly Looking Horse telling the story of its creation and the philosophical influences of each part. The sculpture is over 20 feet tall and reaches from the lower exhibit level of the park’s Visitors Center up into the skylight.
Activities move outside at 1:30 p.m. with world-renowned hoop dancers Starr Chief Eagle and Jasmine Bell. Chief Eagle and Bell will lead demonstrations, accompanied by a live drum, and invite participation from the audience to help understand the art of the hoop dance.
At 3:30 pm, Emmy Her Many Horses, a Sicangu Lakota author, musician, and actress, will conclude the talks with a presentation entitled, “Classical, Traditional, Ancestral: What Makes it Native?” In this discussion, Her Many Horses confronts her personal experience within a university music program and its tension with her own culturally-based systems of knowing.
Throughout the day, Native American artists will be available at booths, allowing visitors to learn about the continuum of Native American cultural expression and to purchase art from local artists. A food truck with Native American selections will also be available.
The Native Americans’ Day Celebration demonstrations are free and appropriate for all ages. Funding for this event is provided by the Black Hills Parks and Forests Association, a non-profit partner with Wind Cave National Park.
For more information, call the park at (605) 745-4600.
This week a major new addition at UC Davis will be unveiled to the public.
The newly expanded Gorman Museum of Native American Art — which is celebrating its 50th year in operation — is one of only a small number of museums in the United States that is focused on telling the story of Native Americans through art. Along with a grand opening ceremony Saturday from noon to 4 p.m., there will be music, dance and other performances, along with works by 20 artists who are all members of California tribes.
CapRadio Insight host Vicki Gonzalez spoke with Veronica Passalacqua, museum executive director and curator, and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, museum director and professor in the Department of Native American Studies about the expansion and celebration.
This Q&A has been edited for length, clarity and flow.
On the importance and significance of the new gallery expansion
Tsinhnahjinnie: The Gorman started from humble beginnings, but it’s always been strong in what we like to term “visual sovereignty.” And visual sovereignty is basically taking control of one’s own image. That’s a very important part of the Gorman Museum, that artists are free to express themselves and to explain themselves, rather than being interpreted by someone who has no idea about their tribe, or where they come from.
On how long the museum has been looking to expand
Passalacqua: Pretty much from the beginning, we had our eyes on a larger space. But really, it was 10 years ago, at our 40th anniversary party, that donors and sponsors really started pushing the university leadership to help us to get to this place where we are now. With COVID and everything, we’ve been under construction and planning for a solid five years, really, to get the build. The gallery space is about four times as large. The whole building, though, is about 11,000 square feet. So it was really exciting that not only do we have space to present more works, and more galleries, but that we could move all the collections and everything we have into the building.
On how it feels to finally have the grand opening this weekend
Passalacqua: Exhausting (laughing). No, we are so excited, because you know, just being able to show these shows with contemporary work, with the collections, and having it really being able to expand our narrative on what we’re able to share with our visitors. We’re going to have a shop as well that we’re very excited about. We’re partnering with the arboretum on the campus and we even have parking. So all of this is a very exciting time.
On what people can expect this weekend
Passalacqua: When they arrive, certainly from Saturday, for our big party day, they’re going to be met with all kinds of things outside the building before they even get inside. So we’re really excited to have a huge festival that includes artists, vendors and artist-led activities. We have five California Native artists that our visitors can sit down and create with and make things. So Saturday is going to be a big day.
When you come in the museum, the shop will have a number of very contemporary, fun, native sourced materials. Then of course, you walk in the museum. And the first thing you’ll see is the contemporary California Native American show. We have about 20 artists in that exhibition, with pieces that are in the collection or on loan from the artists or on loan from some private collections.
CapRadio provides a trusted source of news because of you. As a nonprofit organization, donations from people like you sustain the journalism that allows us to discover stories that are important to our audience. If you believe in what we do and support our mission, please donate today.
Hunter Wade stands by his drone photographs, which are on display at Zero Degrees Gallery in Marquette. Wade is the gallery’s September/October Guest Artist. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)
MARQUETTE — What better way to get a bird’s-eye view of an osprey nest than to use a drone — especially when it doesn’t bother the birds?
Hunter Wade of Negaunee, who is the September/October Guest Artist at Zero Degrees Gallery in Marquette and recently winner of the “Best New Artist” title at Art on the Rocks,, specializes in drone photography, particularly ospreys nesting at Lake LeVasseur in Chocolay Township.
Wade spoke about his work during a Saturday reception for him at the gallery, located at 525 N. Third St.
He said is involved in videography with his Yooper Soul Productions, but his interest expanded.
“I had a drone in the sky that had a camera, so I started taking pictures, and then I found that I enjoyed it,” Wade said. “I stuck with it. It just surprised me. It wasn’t the plan.”
A person looking at some of his drone photography work on display at Zero Degrees might notice some of it looks stylized.
“I made a decision to lean into the fact that images are representative,” Wade said. “They’re a concept.”
He said images are never going to look like their subject.
“They’re never going to look like the thing itself,” Wade said. “So I was like, why am I toiling, attempting to make it look exactly like the thing itself, especially because nobody sees the thing itself the same way?”
It’s a matter of perspective.
“I would think I”m making it the way other people see it, but I would still would be making it the way I see it,” Wade said.
However, he wouldn’t get what he called “the goods.”
For instance, one of his osprey photographs at the gallery was printed on brushed metal. Another one was layered over with acrylic.
Those techniques give the works a unique look.
“The pictures that I get already have a lot of clarity and texture,” Wade said. “I have a really cool tool that works well in the drone that I use.”
Wade has a plan with his drone photos.
“What I’m aiming for is to leverage what’s unreal in the look to create a more real experience,” Wade said.
Why ospeys?
“I didn’t necessarily love ospreys before, but I’ve fallen in love with ospreys through the process,” he said. “It was just novel that I happened upon these raptors.”
Wade wanted to start out with taking pictures of swans, but he discovered their behavior was too aggressive for his presence.
However, he acknowledged having a a bit of trepidation with following the raptors.
“I thought, ‘I am going to get footage? No, they’re going to eat my drone,’” Wade said.
That didn’t happen, he noted, with the ospreys getting used to the drone sound and realizing it wasn’t going to attack them.
Wade did, though, put some thought into the process.
“I very much took the perspective of the bird from the get-go,” Wade said.
As with many photographers, he had to search his inventory to find the right photos.
“They rarely look at the drone,” Wade said of the ospreys. “I have to go through tons of photos to find a picture where they’re facing the camera.”
Over time, Wade was able to get his drone within a few feet of an osprey nest.
“At the end of this year, the nestling knew the drone had been there from the time it was an egg, whereas last year, I didn’t start showing up until the nestlings were, I don’t know, halfway through their cycle,” Wade said. “So, this nestling knew nothing outside of the drone as part of the world. Oh — and news flash — it doesn’t know it’s a drone.”
Thus, spying into their window wasn’t a big concern for the nestlings.
The osprey as a species, according to the Michigan Natural Features Inventory, is a large hawk, measuring 22 to 25 inches, with long, narrow wings, dark brown upper parts and white under parts. Its head is white with a dark eye streak, and the dark “wrist” patches on the underside of its wings are visible in flight.
Female ospreys may have dark streaking around their necks and immature bards have pale buff edging on the dark feathers of their upper surface.
Wade, through his drone photography, also learned about osprey behavior.
“They communicate a lot with one another,” he said. “They’re super clean, just ridiculously clean. They’re bathing themselves all the time. They, from birth, know how to poop outside of the nest, and they do.”
Zero Degrees Gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.
