Exhibits & Events

Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Wednesday, February 11, 5 – 7pm

featuring:
Lyn Godley
Juggling Wolf
Christopher McManus
New American Public Art
Maria Schneider
Jody Sweitzer
TangenT
Chris Vecchio

Rowan University Art Gallery presents Simulate/Permeate, January 20 – March 7, 2015 with a reception and artist’s talks on Wednesday, February 11 from 5 – 7 pm. Curated by InLiquid, the exhibition features the work of eight Philadelphia based artists and artist groups making innovative use of new media that collectively examine concepts of materiality, experience, and authorship in technology based contemporary art.

Lyn Godley
Water Wall
2013
Digital print, charcoal, fiber optic lighting
Lyn Godley is an artist and designer inspired by lighting and the effects of light on the human body and mind. With Water Wall, Godley makes use of naturally occurring responses to particular light wavelengths and imagery. The installation features photographs of water taken along the Bermuda coast which are altered digitally and by hand and threaded with optic fiber and lit with LEDs to achieve an undulating effect.

The piece is meant to inspire calm in the viewer, and is part of a larger investigation into the connection between healthcare and art.

Juggling Wolf
Night Moves
Night Moves (Edit)
Two versions of the video Night Moves are featured in this exhibition. The full length plays in the gallery, and a shorter edited version is broadcast across campus using the technological infrastructure of the university. Taking advantage of the intangible nature of digital media, this method of exhibition expands the experience beyond the gallery space into the classrooms and common areas. Juggling Wolf is a multidisciplinary collective, dedicated to creating video and animation that is technically challenging, and visually rewarding. The team frequently mixes various techniques, from stop motion and traditional animation, to high-end digital compositing.

Christopher McManus
one of us
Christopher McManus’ installation one of us features a sculpture and a 20 second video that plays in reaction to the audience’s interaction with the sculpture. The sculpture is meant to be a physical representation of the internet: friendly, cute, and enticing while simultaneously being completely repulsive, mean-spirited, and horrifying. The sculpture has an interchangeable limb which offers a choice to the audience of either a thumbs-up or middle finger. The choice of gesture mirrors the inherent dual-nature of the internet and highlights the role of the users’ choices and involvement in the experience.

In addition, Christopher McManus has been making videos under the moniker “Hair and Diamonds” for the past 10 years. Using offbeat humor and imagery, as well as a delightful animation style, the videos offer faux-logical insight into exercise, shaving, how diamonds are formed, how hair is formed, and more. The seemingly instructional and informed nature of the videos, while being obviously untrue, create a whimsical comment on what is said and believed in the wilds of the internet.

New American Public Art
Between a Mirror and a Memory
Between a Mirror and a Memory challenges our abilities of self-recognition, and our assumptions of the present moment. Viewers enter the space and encounter a monitor with a live video feed with a temporal delay. The delay is just long enough to create a disconnection yet remain familiar. The viewer is faced with an image of themselves from the near past, but just beyond immediate memory. They react to their reaction, which they will in turn perceive again. The piece exists in the slippery space between past and present moments, recognition and unbelief, and between the self and the ‘other’.

New American Public Art is a collective of artists, engineers, and designers dedicated to bringing engaging and empowering art to the public, and to encouraging a sense of ownership to community spaces.

Maria Schneider
LED drawings
As a counterpoint to the intangible nature of the digital and video art on display at the gallery and throughout the University campus, Maria Schneider’s LED drawings are deeply rooted in their physicality. In fact, they harken back to the most basic art practice of drawing. Schneider begins with a pencil on paper drawing, which is then scanned and laser printed onto layers of polycarbonate and illuminated with LED light. The drawings evoke a common experience and a familiar medium, but are transformed by the technological process to become something new.

Jody Sweitzer
Pledge
Sweitzer’s Pledge is an outdoor sound and video installation that is triggered by the movement of pedestrians in the patio after dark. The familiar recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is subverted by the seemingly sinister messager. The jarring presentation calls into question the words being said, or, more appropriately, not being said. Sweitzer omits the phrase “under God”, emphasizing the inappropriate tendency to insert religion into what is supposed to be a secular context. In addition to the site specific installation, Pledge is on display during regular gallery hours.

TangenT
Fly Spec No.2 from the series RedAct
Dimensions variable
Tyvek suits, video projection, flies
Sound by Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner
2014
Fly Spec No. 2 is an immersive installation made of disparate physical, visual, and sound elements intended to examine the simultaneous connection and disconnection of experience, perception, and knowledge. RedAct is a series of artworks that explores visual renderings of facts detailed in redacted public documents. Drawing from state and federal reporting on individuals and institutions, the RedAct series is as much a meditation on information control, privacy, and truth as it is about what we choose to record, see and know. TangenT is an artist collective dedicated to mixed-media project-based immersive art environments exploring socially relevant and politically current themes.

TangenT artists: Yvonne Love, Gabrielle Russomagno, William Cromar, and Mike “Slo-Mo” Brenner

Chris Vecchio
Cube
5″x5″x5″
2004
At first glance, Chris Vecchio’s work seems to be focused on the object as art, but upon further observation, it is revealed that his art is about interaction. Presented on a pedestal in a formal setting, Cube is meant to be touched. By picking up the Cube and rotating it, the user modifies sound and light in the room. There are over 500 samples of audio that can be triggered by the angle and movement of the Cube, ensuring that every interaction between the viewer and the sculpture is unique. Despite being presented like a precious object on display, the sculpture encourages direct participation, an act that questions the traditional role of the art object.

Exhibitions are open to the public Monday – Friday: 10 am – 5 pm, Wednesday: 10 am – 7 pm, and Saturday: noon -5 pm

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