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Worth Ryder Art Gallery

February 15 - March 6, 2012

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University of California, Berkeley 116 Kroeber Hall Berkeley, CA 94720
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Sphere of Influence Sphere of Influence at UC Berkeley's Worth Ryder Gallery
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 15, 5-7pm Sphere of Influence is an exhibition of new works by four artists created expressly for the Worth Ryder Gallery. Using the site's close proximity to the Berkeley Art Museum as a curatorial starting point, Rachel Dawson, Bean Gilsdorf, Sarah Hotchkiss, and Ida Rödén selected works from the 2009 exhibition "Galaxy: A Hundred or So Stars Visible to the Naked Eye" for source materials. As artists who regularly use appropriation in their practices, the challenge was to find and follow links between their individual choices, creating a circular pattern of connections and influences. Beginning the process, Rachel Dawson selected Jess’ painting Figure #5 Mrs. Sarah Winchester. Motivated by a long-standing interest in occult practices, Dawson was drawn to Winchester’s role as a medium, her fascination with spirits and séances, and a compelling similarity between her obsessive house building project and the creative drive to make art. Incorporating projected light with works on paper, Dawson examines the phenomena of ectoplasmic materializations as artistic production. Ida Rödén, influenced by the uncanny architecture of the Winchester House, explored her surroundings through photography, documenting interior doors, windows, and staircases. Her chosen item from the "Galaxy" exhibition, Wallace Berman's Silent Series #1, provides Rödén's photographic series with structural constrains. Like the Berman work her photographs are displayed in a grid, presented in the palm of a hand along with the possibility of reading the sequential images as an implied narrative. Using photography and photocopies, Sarah Hotchkiss bridges the gap between Silent Series #1 and her chosen piece, Lew Thomas’s Light on the Floor, with a hanging mobile that addresses seriality, variability, and repetition. The circular movement of the mobile itself references the methodology behind the exhibition and the constant feedback loop -- whether internalized or made visible -- that leads to the creation of new work. Finally, Bean Gilsdorf’s selection links to both Dawson and Hotchkiss’ choices, closing the circle. With William Blake's With Dreams Upon My Bed, she connects to Winchester, a woman tormented by the unseen, as well as the formal black and white arrangement of Light on the Floor. Gilsdorf’s bed-sized textile work utilizes elements from Blake, especially the quote from Job 19:22, "why do you persecute me as god & are not satisfied with my flesh." The draped fabric used by Gilsdorf evokes both a connection to the body and the curved lines that envelop Blake's original composition. The Worth Ryder Gallery is located at 116 Kroeber Hall on the UC Berkeley campus, and is open Tuesday through Saturday, Noon to 5pm.