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| This June, InLiquid.com
and the DaVinci Art Alliance will present their first collaborative exhibition.
Bio Tech, a juried exhibition of works by InLiquid.com member artists, will
open at the DaVinci Art Alliance, 704 Catharine Street, on Sunday June 2,
with an opening reception on Sunday, June 9, 2002, 5 to 8 pm. The exhibition
runs through June 30, 2002. The jurors for Bio Tech, Bruce Hoffman of Snyderman Gallery, Jacqueline van Rhyn of the Print Center, and Warren Angle of the Fleisher Art Memorial, selected works in a variety of media that investigate the influence of technology on the human body, perception, and the creative process. The artists selected are Hratch Babikian, Jeffrey Holder, Paul Loughney, Michelle Marcuse, Kathryn Pannepacker, April Reigart, Dan Schimmel, and Chris Vecchio, all of Philadelphia; and California artists Brian Moss and Amie Potsic. Hratch Babikian's sculptures, earthly forms made of oceanic and plant elements, are actualized through the application of technological tools, and reflect his interest in the cultural existences of people past, present, and future. April Reigart's wearable objects are also organic in form, yet have been created using non-tactile tools of Computer Aided Design, Computer Aided Manufacture and Rapid Prototyping. Rendered in durable plastics and resins, they are at once rigid and sensual. Kathryn Pannepacker's woven sculpture, "Gathering," is a delicate construction employing items used in everyday life that reflect both technology -- aluminum foil -- and the personal -- cotton swabs and hairpins. Dan Schimmel describes his latest paintings, with their abstractly patterned cellular forms, as seeming like "landscapes of the microchip or microorganism … microcosm viewed through a magnifying lens;" created out of desire to "render the fullness of my experience through a search for form." Michelle Marcuse also incorporates cellular forms in her paintings, but softened and diffused through the organic medium of encaustic, they give the impression of a telescopic, instead of microscopic, view. Whereas Schimmel’s forms seem to collide, Marcuse’s float in a sea of milky space. Paul Loughney’s monotype on mylar, "Modified Substitute," "investigates how technology has influenced our pre-conceived perceptions about our own biology and how that perception can bring about dangerous results." He cites the notion of eugenics, and how in modern society eugenics has manifested itself as an inwardly-focused practice of self-correction, accomplished through the application of cutting-edge technology. Jeffrey Holder's color photograph of a mountain bike racer, faceless and clothed to match his vehicle, presents the human body not only cleared of organic imperfection, but merged with and transformed by his relationship with the machine. Chris Vecchio's work presents machines and technological tools as an "extension and reflection of man," exploring the relationship between man and technology, and the alienation that has developed between people the functional objects that surround them. By integrating hand-built electronic circuitry within bones, he establishes emotional and organic connections to technology. Brian Moss' connected series of color photographs of his own black eye healing over the course of twenty-two days, and his "Pyramid" sculpture of collected bathtub hairballs are medically-related self-representations, inspired by the scientific act of "collecting, examining, dissecting, comparing, observing" biological matter as a means of delving into a deeper truth. Amie Potsic’s photographs also reference the science of medicine. By photographing individuals with a variety of physical scars in high-contrast black and white, she explores the effects of technology (surgical techniques) on the human body, addressing the scar as an "agent of strength, sensuality, conflict, technology, and beauty... a reminder of mortality and symbol of survival," as well as a time capsule of sorts, in that the compared nature of scars from different time periods reflect the state of changing medical technology. The DaVinci Art Alliance, at 704 Catherine Street in Philadelphia, is open Wednesdays 5 – 8 pm, and Saturday – Sunday 1 – 5 pm. |
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