Mise En Place ( Everything in its Place): Deep Flash on Art and Transformation

Deep Flash: On Art and Transformation

September 5 – October 14, 2018

Gibbs Street Gallery | Kaplan Gallery | Common Ground Gallery | Concourse Gallery

Opening Reception: Friday, September 7th, 7 – 9 PM

30th Anniversary celebration exhibition

Curators: Cynthia Connolly, Judy A. Greenberg, Fletcher Mackey, Jacqueline Maria Milad, Jack Rasmussen, Laura Roulet, José Ruiz, Nancy Sausser, Lynn Silverman, ⎮’sindikit⎮ (Zoë Charlton and Tim Doud)

Artists: Ashley Culver, Frank Hallam Day, Elsabé Dixon, Alex Ebstein, Shané K. Gooding, Stephen Hayes, Christopher K. Ho, James Huckenpahler, Jean Jinho Kim, Mike Mandel and Larry Sultan, Guy Miller, Evan Reed, Allan Rosenbaum, Rachel Rotenberg, Foon Sham, Joe Shannon, Chad Stayrook, Hillary Steel, Judit Varga, Elizabeth Zvonar, bees, The Punk Rock Flyer and Zines (from the archives of Cynthia Connolly, Dischord Records at the University of Maryland at College Park).

In celebration of its 30th Anniversary, VisArts presents an exhibition in four galleries that explores the power of visual art to transform. Eleven curators selected a single work of art, a small curated group of artworks by multiple artists, or an art experience that addresses art’s ability to shift social, cultural, or personal forms. This exhibition was created in the spirit of sharing experiences and opening conversations about the “work” of art as a spark or trigger for conversions spectacular and subtle in both makers and viewers.

https://www.visartscenter.org/x/lc-content/uploads/2018/05/Deep-Flash_Exhibition-press-release_final_reduced_Aug29.pdf

Independent curator Laura Roulet considered planetary transformation through climate change and the role of the eco-artist for Deep Flash. She invited Elsabé Dixon, whose project Mise en Place/ Everything in its Place, incorporates wheat, raising live bees, harvesting honey, kneading and baking bread - all transformative processes that demonstrate the life cycle of plants, insects, and the humans that depend on them. Using sculpture, performance, workshops, a panel talk with local beekeepers, the Beall Dawson House Museum collection, and Great Harvest Bread she makes the interconnections in an ecological system transparent and encourages active participation.

https://www.visartscenter.org/x/lc-content/uploads/2018/05/Deep-Flash_Exhibition-press-release_final_reduced_Aug29.pdf

https://myemail.constantcontact.com/This-Weekend--Join-Us-for-a-Bread-Making-Workshop-and-Special-Pollination-Panel-Discussion.html?soid=1102418510050&aid=U7m-cvnm20o

An Installation using Bread and Honey

Megan Hurst, owner of Great Harvest Company and Elsabe Dixon, http://alexandria.greatharvestbread.com/

Bread Wall - a hexagon framed installation, 2018

Mise En Place - Hexagon Installation with Beeswax and Aluminum, 10 feet by 10 feet by 10 inches deep.

Great Harvest staff participating in "Mise En Place": From Left to Right: Jeferson Tabuga, Ashley Viney, - , Fah Buachart Ying

Food Wraps made from cotton and Beeswax during a workshop.

Susanna Lee, staff member at VisArt Art Center in Rockville finishing up her Food Wrap before workshop attendees arrive.

Agricultural Planting Station provided to workshop participants. Planting wheat seeds provided by the Great Harvest Bread Company.

Workshop participants showing off their food wraps and their bread processed during the workshop.

Workshop participants create a bread installation by stepping on wonder bread and leaving their shoe sole imprints on the bread. Bread is then hung on the wall with a nail.

Gifts prepared for the pollinator panel discussion at the Beall Dawson Museum, Rockville, MD

Gift Food Wraps printed and made by the artist for sale in the Beall Dawson Museum Gift Shop. Proceeds go toward the Montgomery County Bee Association, MD.

Contributions for the installation by the artists own apiary.

A Wheat Garden was installed at Beall Dawson Museum and Garden site using Bakers Honey Buckets provided by the Great Harvest Bread Company

Wheat Seeds were harvested and used during the workshops given at VisArts Art Center.

Seeds for the project donated by Great Harvest Bread Company.

Beall Dawson Museum Garden provided ample food for all local bees working in a two mile radius of the VisArt Art Center.

Pollinator Panel Discussion Flyer designed by Susanna Lee.

Panel Participants

BeeDialogues2015

During the summer of 2015: Apiary sculpture construction (Project in process).

The Living Hive creates a cross-disciplinary science-art-technology collaboration by developing a modular sculpture by bees that can be created by existing apiary programs at George Mason University and along the 29th corridor (Fairfax to Danville, VA). The installation of the sculpture in galleries and museums will establish a social platform where communities interested in the eco concerns of pollinators can interact, share knowledge, and be empowered to develop new partnerships, collaborations, and projects to strengthen social ecology infrastructures and sustainable agricultural practices.

The design of the modular sculpture brings together expertise in art, beekeeping, and technology at Mason.

- George Mason University, Fairfax, VA

-GMU Bee Initiatives

- GMU MakerSpace (MIX)

- Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation, Front Royal, VA

-Chroma ArtLab, Charlottesville, VA

- Danville Museum of Fine art and history, Danville, VA

Projected Started in the teaching hives of George Mason University

Creating Partnerships with local beekeepers along the 29th Corridor, VA

Participating beekeepers:

Àngel Cabrera

German Perilla

Stephanie Lessard-Pilon

Roger Williams

Mike Rogers

Lance Hardcastle

Sue Bennett

Patsi New

Betsy East

Rusty East

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Dadant provided hives for exhibition and helped connect us to the local beekeeping community.

Lance Hardcastle installing his Living Hive form

Stephanie Lessard Pilon at the Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation

German Perilla (GMU Bee Initiatives Program) and Elsabé Dixon

Debora McLeod, Collaborating Curator for " A Consideration of Bees, " a pre-showing of the Living Hive parts in Charlottesville Virginia, Summer 2016.

Elsabé Dixon and Stepanie Lessard-Pilon

Bee Foraging Fields at the Smithsonian Mason School of Conservation

Roger Williams, (Former President of the CMBA) Collaborating Culpeper Apiary.

Mike Rogers, President of the Pitsylvania Beekeepers Association, Collaborating Apiary.

Roger Williams, Collaborating Culpeper, VA Beekeeper

Liouse Edsall, Collaborating GMU beekeeper.

Patsi New, Collaborating Beekeeper, VA

Lance Hardcastle, Collaborating (and Youngest ) Beekeeper.

Rusty and Betsy East, Collaborating Chatham Beekeepers from Mill Mountain Farm, VA

Jade Garrett, Living Hive Partner and Director of the MIX at George Mason University.

VisArts: This is Labor (2013)

Sixteen artists negotiate the "work" of art in this Washington Sculptors Group juried exhibition.
Featured artists: Jan Paul Acton, Greg Braun, Nizette Brennan, Jeffery Cooper, Elsabe Dixon, Martin Feldman, Maggie Gourlay, Adam Hager, Kim Hyeon, Jacqueline Maggi, Elena Patino, John Ruppert, Paul Steinkoenig, Diane Szczepaniak, Elizabeth Whiteley, Millicent Young.
Curators: Anne Reeve- Curatorial Associate, Glenstone, Claire D’Alba- Assistant Curator, Art in Embassies, Washington, DC

Location:
Visarts at Rockville
155 Gibbs Street
Rockville, MD 20850

Silk Sphere, Word Spun Silk 12" x 12"

THIS IS LABOR explores the intersections and overlap between the sphere of "work" and that of "art". Historically art has been placed squarely in the realm of traditional labor-integrated and validated as a necessary part of civic life. Since the time of Michelangelo and Ghiberti, however, art has been increasingly isolated as a discipline, with both its processes and products in continual dispute. Today, a survey, sidewalk performance, or séance can be seen and experienced as part of a gallery program; artists may exhibit literal trash, culled from the sidewalk, or spend years crafting meticulous, functionless objects that resist description altogether. What types of "work" are enacted, and legitimized, in these practices? What sort oflabor does the artist today undertake-intellectual, emotional, physical, durational, technical, or performative? How is that labor valued, and by whom? How does practicality inform the practice? What is the relationship between time invested and resulting value? The artists of This is Labornegotiate these terms in siting their own practice, exploring different possibilities inherent in the "work"of art.

Anne Reeve serves as Curatorial Associate at Glenstone, a private-arts foundation located in Potomac, Maryland. As Director of Glenstone's Oral History Program she has interviewed over 30 artists, including John Baldessari, Claes Oldenburg, Jeff Wall, Martha Rosler, Jo Baer, Carl Andre, and others. She has worked for the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, The Guggenheim Museum, New York, andThe Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, Italy. Her writing has appeared in Art Papers and in Art in America Magazine, and her recent contribution to the volume Making the Geologic Now, a collaboration with artist Jarrod Beck, was released by Punctum Books in Fall 2012. She holds a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and an MA in the History of Art from University College London.

Claire D'Alba is an Assistant Curator with Art in Embassies at the United States Department of State. She has assistant curated permanent collections and curated temporary exhibitions and for United States diplomatic missions around the world, including recent projects in Morocco, Gaborone, Tallinn, Beijing, Kigali, Panama, and Nicaragua. Before joining the State Department, Claire completed her Master of Arts Degree at the University of Virginia, where she was the Assistant Director of the University's Fayerweather Gallery. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Prior to her current position, she worked in philanthropic consulting at Campbell & Company and at the National Gallery of Art.

VisArts is a nonprofit arts center dedicated to engaging the community in the arts and providing opportunities for artistic exploration, education and participation. Through educational programming, gallery exhibitions and a resident artist program, VisArts provides children, teens and adults with opportunities to express their creativity and enhance their awareness of the arts. The galleries at VisArtsserve as a catalyst for conversation, education and creative interactions through quality gallery exhibitions and programs. The Kaplan Gallery at VisArts is a premier exhibition space committed to programming that exemplifies the VisArts mission presenting artists and issues that reflect regional, national and international interests. VisArts is located in Rockville Town Square, three blocks from the Rockville Metro at 155 Gibbs Street, Rockville, MD.

Alchemical Vessel (2014)

The Joan Hisaoka Healing Arts Gallery: An Exhibition of Alchemical Vessels, featuring 125 artists hand-selected by 20 of DC’s prominent curators participating in a community dialogue on healing and transformation through the arts. Each artist transforms a simple ceramic bowl by means of his or her own personal aesthetic and medium, drawing inspiration from the bowl as a place of holding, community, sacred space, and the alchemical vessel. For a full list of the participating curators and artists, visit http://www.smithcenter.org/benefit

Artisphere Moths 2014

After raising about 4000 silk moths and watching them going through metamorphoses to become spinners and then moths, visitors to Artisphere engaged with the insects through playful interactions. Visitors to the AIR studio were encouraged to describe sensory experiences and take photos.

Artisphere Labyrinth-maze 2014-2015

Floor Maze-labyrinth installed in December of 2014; created from the detritus collected during a live insect installation (silkworms) in the months of October and November. Detritus used for this installation consist of:

1. Mulberry Twigs (left-over from feeding the silkworms mulberry leaves)

2. Silkworm Cocoons cut in half (spun by the silkworms)

3. Silkworm Frass (poop)

4. Mirrors (on top of which the silkworms spun)

5. Salt ( preservative)

Artisphere Wall Installation

Wall installation created with recycled roofing rubber, paper towel-roles, worm spun filament on mirror, and silk. Adhered to the wall with dry-stud nails. These forms provided spaces for 4000 silkworms to spin cocoons into. The cocoons are harvested once the life cycle of the insects is completed.

GEDANKENEXPERIMENT Black Pod (2014)

A show presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Washington Sculptors Group. Juried by Sarah Tanguy, curator for the U.S. State Department's Art in Embassies program, it offers a discussion about scientific thought experiments. Thought experiments consider the effects of a hypothesis or theory that cannot easily be tested in the physical world. German-born physicist Albert Einstein used the term “gedankenexperiment” to describe his use of conceptual rather than actual experiments to create the theories of special and general relativity. Famous examples of thought experiments include Schrödinger's cat, a Turing machine, Maxwell's demon, and the broken window fallacy. Inspired by scientific and mathematical theories, hypotheses, and principles from Archimedes, the I Ching, geology, geometry, architecture, the work featured in GEDANKENEXPERIMENT investigate the interstice between art and science.

Black Pod (2014)

Repurposed Cardboard, Plaster, Acrylic and Worm-spun Silk

8” x 10” x 7”

(Installed on pedestal with mirror and worm frass)

AAAS is located at 1200 New York Avenue NW at the corner of 12th and H Streets NW, in Washington, D.C.

Anacostia: Lumen8 - Wings (2013)

Lumen8: Wings (Summer 2013)

Cicada wings and map pins on drywall.

20' x 10' Wall Installation

Anacostia Lumen8: Weavings (2013)

Audience interactive process: While silkworms spin cocoons, their action is simulated by an audience constructing a 8' x8' x 8' cocoon from repurposed cardboard tubes. Understructure consists of an armature of steel rods.

Constructed Cocoon, Re-used Paper and cocoons, 8' x 8', 2013.jpg

Anacostia: Lumen8 - Worms (2013)

The agricultural process of sericulture is introduced in the studio setting. The audience gets to participate in the process of feeding the silkworms mulberry leaves during the first four months of the silkworm life cycle. The audience also pick the spinners from the feeders and place the spinners on structures in the studio where they spin cocoons or flat weavings.

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Anacostia: Lumen8 - Food (2013)

Urban foreging becomes a topic during studio process. Local mulberry trees are stripped of fruit and the mulberries are processed as canned jams or made into a vinegar for salad.

Anacostia: Lumen8 - Moth Performance (2013)

Moths are the large stage of the silkworm life cycle. They lay eggs, and the eggs hatch to become silkworms. The silkworms feed for four weeks and when fully grown they turn into spinners. The spinners spin silk for three days and three nights. During the moth stage yoga instructor Samaa Claiborne was invited to do a performance teaching with 1000 silk moths on her.

Book of Latent Promises: Port-au-Prince, Haiti (Working Man Collective, GMU)

Before taking off for the Ghetto Biennial in November, 2013, recycled paper from the Glenstone museum was processed in the paper studio at George Mason University by students and faculty. Small paper "briquettes" were produced and packed for travel to supplement the paper for the book project that would be produced from the paper waste of Port-au-Prince. We also experimented with format sizes and devised frames for the paper pages.

Book of Latent Promises: Finding Material in Port-au Prince (Nov. 2013)

Material was found on the streets of Port-au-Prince with which to make sets of printing appliances and tools. Rubber, wood, and wire usable and functioning replicas of industrial made briers, etc. were made. The first prints were pulled in the rubble areas near the National Cemetery.

Book of Latent Promises: Public studio of Port-au-Prince (Nov.2013)

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The Book of Latent Promises: Ghetto Biennial 2013 - Repurposed Paper Waste

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