Graduating senior Art Majors present 'Liminal Spaces: the Overlooked and Otherworldly.' This exhibit showcases imagery and ideas of being between spaces or times, such as ending college and beginning life outside of school, or finding one's way through changes of the pandemic's impacts on our lives, to subtler states of being that are often overlooked or fantasized. Each student approaches these larger themes in different ways through their artworks. Eloise Baker's installation relates to hidden computer code made apparent through weaving; Tiffany Ferriera's collage-paintings pull together common elements from nature, living, and dying; Rachel Zemsky's imagery activates considerations of burn-out and recovery; whereas Deinara Seamans' colorful rabbits implore us to consider folklore passing through our attention; Joseph Vigiard's drawings imply dreams of the past and the future; and Delano Mill's comics detail stories of moving through revenge to difficult truths.
See the exhibit catalog HERE!
Multidisciplinary, Oakland-based artist Catherine Monahon brings Conversations with the Material World, four sculptures with four corresponding soundscapes, to MCLA's Gallery 51. Monahon is currently one of the artists-in-residence at The Walkway House downtown; they run Waveform Ceramics, a clay classroom in Oakland, and are using the time at the Tend Residency to strengthen their trauma-aware, healing-centered arts curriculum.
Through Conversations with the Material World, they invite visitors to engage with an interactive audio installation that celebrates our connection to our own creative impulses. This sensual, playful, interactive installation features sculptures made of glass, wood, fiber and clay. The work is made to be touched, designed by a collective of queer and/or non-binary artists. Each object is accompanied by a soundscape inspired by the material, maker and process.
The installation prioritizes engagement, play and introspection. Access to material knowledge and feeling safe to touch and explore the material world is a human right; this right isn’t always equally accessible to all. So much opportunity for connection is embedded in something as simple and commonplace as soft fabric or polished wood --reminders of the material world and opportunities to be intimate with materials are ever present. The soundscapes explore themes of intimacy, family, grief, home, tradition and identity. Slip on a pair of headphones, press play, and yes, you can touch the art!
Conversations with the Material World premiered at the Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden as a part of Sound Scene Fest in June of 2022, with its West Coast debut last fall at Yerba Buena Night. Contributing artists include Philly-based sound designer Lizzy de Lise, San-Francisco-based furniture designer Dominique Tutwiler, Ohio-based fiber artist Selena Loomis and New York-based glassblower Deborah Czeresko. The work was conceived through Material Feels, a monthly art podcast Monahon produces that explores the intimate relationship between people and the materials they fall in love with.
WANG Chen is MAC's 2022-2023 Benedetti Teaching Artist-in-Residence
