Event
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Pro Arts Gallery
July 7 - July 28, 2016Info
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http://www.proartsgallery.org/
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(510) 763-4361
Dimitra Skandali, Aegean – Pacific: a Dialogue (detail), 2012, crocheted seaweed, dimensions variable
Dimitra Skandali (Artist) x Samantha Reynolds (Curator) now the weakening shadow remains and its cracked confidence… Dimitra Skandali presents a site-specific installation of found, natural and manmade materials exploring the desire for connectivity, the fragility of networks and the effects of displacement in relationship to the body. Skandali’s practice is rooted in a deep reverence for the natural environment and the importance of place as a signifier for identity. Gathering materials from her home island of Paros, Greece, local Bay Area beaches and international travel destinations, Skandali collects, dries and crochets strands of seaweed, among other materials, to create an immersive environment within the gallery. Through her labor-intensive process and repurposing of materials, Skandali creates an open-ended and empathetic space for visitors to explore and investigate. For this installation at Pro Arts, Skandali has added sound elements to further immerse visitors in a sensory experience. The fragility and solidity of the material is contrasted with a cacophony of violent and shifting sounds. This push-pull relationship between audio and raw materials references contemporary experiences of displacement in connection with the instability of current global political, social, economic, and cultural climates. Skandali’s installation of intertwining and diverging lines simultaneously recognizes our diversity of networks, pasts and origins, while also calling to our basic human desire to connect to our environment and to one another. Christie Yuri Noh (Artist) x Marie Martraire (Curator) Information About The Outside World On the surface, the recent and new works in Noh’s solo exhibition Information About the Outside World appear as attractive collages of fragmented digital images, mixed materials, and decontextualized objects. On outward appearance, the meaning of the works primarily interweaves with their visual physicality and their making techniques. Digital photographs are hand printed onto see-through canvases. Other individual transparencies are printed onto 10 x 10-inch cardboards challenging the most common 2 x 2-inch slide form. Together, the works push back on traditional considerations of the painting and photographic mediums (scale, size, labor, etc.).