Almost as old as the codex, the artist’s book has centuries of history. Artists have used the book as medium for exposing their images and concepts, which in turn challenge the form of the book as an information package and loops back to extend the idea of a book qua book. In this ongoing dialog between the artist, the page, and the reader or browser, the parameters of the book are bound; confined within the pages of a quarto or folio; or unbound; stretching and folding out beyond the reaches of a rectangular or square surface. This exhibition draws upon artists’ books from SMU Libraries collections and other institutions to ask questions about the book as an object in the mid-twentieth century, a period of great proliferation of artists’ book, up to our current time.
ARK is a film made from 35mm prints held in the G. William Jones Film and Video Collection’s archive. The film was made from a selection of individual films in the darkroom to create new contact printed strips of film. The process involved experimenting with methods of exposure in response to the visibility of the 35mm projector, normally hidden in a booth behind the audience. The film is based on a rare version of the 1928 silent epic Noah’s Ark, which makes use of optical sound added in the 1950s, along with a number of other films. The Ark depicted in the film is intended as a stand-in for the archive, a holding place to preserve films from the passage of time and a refuge from which to repopulate the world with images.
The Hawn Gallery presents Chromarray, work by San Antonio-based artist Constance Lowe, featuring works from her Garden City (Air to Ground) and FabCom and Chromarray series.Lowe’s work examines the intersection between nature and humans’ built environments, with a special focus on biology, mathematics, psychology and agriculture. Lowe’s most recent series, Garden City (Air to Ground) (2015)takes its inspiration from circular and gridded NASA satellite photos of Midwestern fields. The landscapes contain personal connotations to Lowe as they represent land once owned by her family. Lowe uses a range of materials in her work such as dyed calfskin, wool, felt, translucent drafting film, and photographic reproductions of nature. Lowe’s blending of natural and synthetic materials reveal how nature can be manufactured and our constructed world made to appear naturally occurring. These pieces reveal the social implications of human being’s dissonance from nature.
Clear, Deep, Dark features new works by Julie Morel. Morel’s work examines the intersections between text and visual imagery. She utilizes technology, books, typography and drawings to realize the relationships between text and image. Another important aspect of Morel’s projects is that they are never insular. Most involve collaborations with other artists, writers, and designers. The exhibition will include new works created for the Hawn Gallery as well as pieces previously shown in galleries abroad from her AFK and Electrical Drawings series.
In Morel’s newest body of work, Clear, Deep, Dark, Morel takes inspiration from the darknet, a term referring to the hidden side of the internet that deals with illicit transactions, sharing of sensitive information, and protecting human rights. She builds upon her Electrical Drawings (2015) series, incorporating new terms connected to the darknet in her work and examines what becomes of physical objects when they take on new lives in the digital realm. The redisplay of Morel's work alongside her newest series generates a unique context for the pieces, encouraging new conversations between the objects and viewers.
Collective Practice: Community Building Through Zines features works by Puro Chingón Collective, with members James Huizar, Claudia Zapata and Claudia Aparicio-Gamundi. The works on display include prints, short films, and zines largely from the Collective’s own publication, ChingoZine. The Collective created ChingoZine to act as an alternative space for Latinx artists to showcase their work. The booklet format zines use acts as a social equalizer, enabling anyone to publish work otherwise rejected by galleries or publishing houses. It is also an inexpensive medium, allowing individuals to print and distribute zines at little to no cost and reach a wide audience. The Collective’s works seeks to do just that. Their practice is rooted in social practice and engages with people in public spaces through murals, film screenings, or parties. The exhibition’s inclusion of the Collective’s zines, and visual art helps illustrate how the use of text and images act as a means to support, represent, and empower diverse groups.
Embodied Algorithm: [Re]embracing the Analog presents new works by Ira Greenberg completed over a two-year period. Greenberg explores the continuum between computational (digital) and human (analog) - implemented algorithms. The ultimate pieces confront viewers with large-scale snapshots of intimate moments among Greenberg’s subjects.
Greenberg’s work is a strong departure from his previous series. His work has gradually moved away from the digital sphere and into the tactile medium of drawing. His previous project of algorithmic drawings uses self-designed coding software to alter figurative drawings. This current series of drawings moves Greenberg even further from technology. Rather than interacting with a computer interface, he engages directly with faces. The drawings force viewers to question what intimacy looks like and the forms it can take in the digital age of increasing interface-based interactions.
The DeForrest Judd Collection contains nine sketchbooks that concentrate on his trips to Colorado, the Gulf coast, Caddo Lake, New Mexico, the Big Bend, and the Hill Country in Texas. Each sketchbook measures approximately [H] 11” x [W] 8 ½”. The sketchbooks featured in this exhibition are from his travels in the 1960s to Big Bend, Caddo Lake, and the Texas Gulf coast. The original sketchbooks are part of the DeForrest Judd art work and papers located in Bywaters Special Collection in the Hamon Arts Library at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. More information.
Octaviano Rangel: Was He a Beast If the Music Could Move Him So?
This exhibition of recent work by Octaviano Rangel is inspired by, and takes its name from, Franz Kakfa's Metamorphosis. On view are a series of cut paper, graphite, and ink collages, as well as a site-specific graphite drawing created directly on the library wall.
Opening Reception: Friday, April 7th, 6-8 p.m.
Piecing It Together features works by Danielle Kimzey, Mary Laube, and Christopher Reno. These three painters share an interest in exploring the constructed idea of ‘home’ and seek to demystify, through their abstract works, this insular domestic space. This collected body of work draws upon the artists' experiences of parenthood and memories of home, and reveals those associations considered as often banal or overly sentimental. All three artists employ a wide range of mediums in their painting practices and rigorously examine diverse modernist and contemporary techniques and ideologies.
Camilla Cowan: "Paintings and Prints"