Topos/Chora Online Gallery Is Up!

For those of you out there who could not make it to the Topos/Chora opening at the beginning of the month, you now have access to the online gallery hosted, in part, by UND.

This is an expanded selection of the work, from the gallery show that includes the essays by other PKAP staff members and a great project overview by Kostis Kourelis. Read his comments about the project here.

Take some time with the images and texts. Enjoy.

Let the heat from the Mediterranean sun thaw the winter.

Visiting Artist: Nancy Friese

This past week I was fortunate to have the opportunity to help print with our visiting artist series. UND alum, now faculty at RISD, Nancy Friese spent the week with us putting together a 5 etching suite with accompanying poetry by North Dakota Museum of Art Founder/Director Laurel Reuter. Tumbling Time is editioned in 20.

While at times the process is chaotic, it seems to get done in the appropriate time frame. We spent likely 6-8 hours M-S putting this remarkable body of work together. I am thankful for Anna, Jess, Kim, Josh and Nancy for sharing their wisdom, patience and humor in this process. While we do a lot of precision work we also spend a good deal of time talking and getting to know one another.

Visiting Artist Dan Attoe

UND’s department of Art and Design will be hosting artist Dan Attoe from Monday, March 1st till Friday March 5^th. He will be giving a slide presentation of his work at 5:00 p.m March, 3rd in room 227 at the Hughes Fine Arts Center. His luscious, highly detailed surfaces are reminiscent of romantic painting, as he investigates the “underbelly” of American western culture. He received his MFA from University of Iowa, Iowa City in 2004 and his
 BFA from University of Wisconsin, Madison, in 1998. Attoe has recently exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Bordeaux, France, and Saatchi Gallery, London UK. For inquiries, email Lori Esposito, Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at Lori.Esposito@und.edu

New Photo Series

This is a new photo series I am playing with. It emerges from some experiments from last year with artificially aging scanned photos. They sat around my studio for a year now and only recently have I had an idea for what to do with them. I wanted to move beyond the document/object themselves into a commentary or question about the document/object. I'm not entirely sure if this is the landing point or another step along the way.

Wherever it goes, I appreciate the ideas behind or within the image of the prolongation or extension of memory...and/or perhaps even the compression of time. Are these simple artifacts or is there a greater narrative?

New Print

This is the latest (just completed this afternoon) in a series I've been calling Religion as a Chain of Memory. The image of me and my father is being reused from my prototypes in the first posting. This print uses the first question from the Heidelberg Catechism, still memorized by my father from his youth. I too studied it in my youth...although it is not lodged quite as firmly as it is for him. In a sense, that is what these pieces are about...human effort to convey meaning, morality, religious creeds and other confessions of faith from one generation to another. Thus far, they just happen to be those that my father has shared with and embodied for me during my life.

Topos/Chora on Archaeologists/Photographers Site

Upon my return from Cyprus and the PKAP project, Bill Caraher passed along a link to the newly opened Archaeologist/Photographers site. This project is meant to explore the emerging discussion between the arts (particularly) photography and archaeologist. Last week, my work from PKAP went up as the 4th featured artist. Not only is it great timing, as it corresponds to the show at the Empire Arts Center, but it also lines up nicely with the podcast and online gallery componenents hosted by the UND working group in digital media.

Please take some time to check out the Archaeologists/Photographers site and the other artists and their work.

UND Press Release Regarding Topos/Chora

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2010—UND historian, photography student collaborate on Empire Arts Center exhibit featuring art from Cyprus research project

Topos/Chora: Photographs of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project

The exhibit Topos/Chora: Photographs of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project is featured now through the end of the month at the Empire Arts Center. The exhibit features the photographs of UND Master’s of Fine Art student Ryan Stander. These images were produced during Stander’s time as the artist-in-residence at Pyla-Koustopetria Archaeological Project in Cyprus.

Since 2003, the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project has conducted archaeological fieldwork in the Republic of Cyprus under the direction of Bill Caraher of the UND Department of History. It is one of very few archaeological projects in the Mediterranean to support an artist-in-residence program.

Stander's photos seek to present the relationship between the archaeologist at work in the field and the physical and natural environment. Portraits, landscape views, and dynamic work images capture the intersection of physical energy, personality, and the striking archaeological and natural landscape of the Cypriot coastline.

Stander’s photos will be at the Empire Arts Center through the end of the month. The exhibit is free and open to the public and is open during Empire Arts Center events and by appointment. Check the Center’s Web site for a calender of this month’s events. An online exhibit supported by the Working Group in Digital and New Media will be released later this week.