Rebecca Smith
dal 11/9/2002 al 12/10/2002
Segnalato da
11/9/2002
Rebecca Smith
Florence Lynch Gallery, New York
Rebecca Smith. It is believed that the creative impulse inspired, exaggerated and eventually overrun by mania is integral to creativity in human beings. The tape drawing installation consists of images generated by an exploration of the relationship between manic depression and the life of the Romantic composer Robert Schumann.
The Creative Life of Robert Schumann
Florence Lynch Gallery is pleased to present The Creative Life of Robert
Schumann, a tape drawing installation by Rebecca Smith.
It is believed that the creative impulse inspired, exaggerated and
eventually overrun by mania is integral to creativity in human beings. The
tape drawing installation consists of images generated by an exploration of
the relationship between manic depression and the life of the Romantic
composer Robert Schumann. A central image is a timeline of Schumann's
composing years and the opus numbers of compositions made in each year - an
attempt to make visible the correlation between Schumann's hypomania and his
creativity, the ebb and flow of extreme mood and its interaction with
thoughts, ideas and actions as demonstrated in the mind of an artist.
The timeline and other images related to the subject of manic depression (or
bipolar disorder) strive to represent the otherwise invisible forces that
buffet and even torment our lives and thought processes. Smith accesses
several bodies of thought and data - the arc of a pendulum, demarcation
between magnet North and True North, diagrams used by neuroscientists and
psychologists - to generate still more images. The clinical observation that
seasonal light variations can trigger mania, for example, inspired Smith to
make drawings that combine various visual schemas, hardwon distillations of
interworkings of mood and environment. Removing a diagram out of its
context, in a discussion of firing synapses, for instance, and using it as
an element in a tape drawing makes us see it as visual language in an art
context.
The variant ways with which Smith renders her concerns resist the simplistic
notion that manic depression is a conflict between opposing poles; instead,
true balance is won only by arriving at the appropriate mix of multiple
modalities. The manic "juice" must be blended with the dampening end of the
mood spectrum in order to create a balanced state. Rather than black and
white opposites, Smith envisions interplay of chromatics.
The exhibition is on
view from September 12 to October 12, 2002. An opening reception will be
held at the gallery on Thursday, September 12 from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
The Gallery will be at Art Forum Berlin from September 26 - 30, 2002.
Hall/Stand No: 23a/21
Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Florence Lynch Gallery, 147 West 29th Street, New York, NY 10001, Tel
967-7584 Fax 967-9264