January, February, March 2004 @ DeCordova: Exhibitions and Events

New Exhibitions

Self-Evidence: Identity in Contemporary Art
Joyce and Edward Linde Gallery, James and Audrey Foster Galleries, Arcade Gallery, Media Space @ DeCordova/Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Gallery
February 7 - May 30, 2004
Opening Reception: February 6, 2004, from 5:30 - 8:30 pm
Artists have long explored their identities through representing their likenesses in self-portraiture. Self-Evidence, however, focuses on contemporary artists who examine their identities by using themselves or aspects of themselves as a starting point for exploring larger issues and their relation to the self. Some of these issues include the effect of illness or trauma on one's body and mind, aging and identity, the individual's relationship to family, cultural or ethnic identity, genetic identity and identification, sexuality and gender, the lasting evidence of an individual's existence after he or she is absent, and the artist's identity in relation to his or her artistic predecessors.

In this post-9/11, post-modern, and digital era, the works in Self-Evidence demonstrate that identity is complicated, unfixed, ever changing, constructed, and also unlimited. Because of the new technologies available to contemporary artists, this show not only includes photography, painting, sculpture, and works on paper, but also installation work, video, holography, digital, and Web-based art.

Participating artists include Steve Aishman, Sachiko Akiyama, Karl Baden, Gerry Bergstein, Walead Beshty, Ambreen Butt, Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons, Harriet Casdin-Silver, Patty Chang, Chrissy Conant, Randall Deihl, Ann Fessler, Tom Friedman, Jen Hall, Susan Hauptman, Tim Hawkinson, Denise Marika, Annu Palakannathu Matthew, John O'Reilly, Danica Phelps, Barbara Poole, Gary Schneider, Duane Slick, Sage Sohier, Karin Stack, Linn Underhill, Bill Viola, and Dan Younger.

Self-Evidence is accompanied by a forty-page illustrated catalogue and is organized by Rachel Rosenfield Lafo, Director of Curatorial Affairs, George Fifield, Curator of New Media, and Francine Weiss, Curatorial Fellow.

Jo Yarrington: Jirimani
Grand Staircase, Window Gallery, Elevator Window
February 7 - May 30, 2004
Opening Reception: February 6, 2004, from 5:30 - 8:30 pm
For Jirimani, Connecticut artist Jo Yarrington will install large-scale photographic transparencies in several prominent Museum windows, animating the spaces in unusual and provocative ways. The images-photographs of abstracted bodies with markings that are illuminated in predominantly red light-will bathe viewers in projected images back-lit by the sun. Visitors will be able to see the artist's work from both outside and inside the building. Activated by the changing light of day, the images will appear to cascade down the staircase windows, and at times will project onto the staircase wall.

The title of this exhibition, Jirimani, means "to sing" in Australian Aboriginal language and refers to a ritual used in their religious practice called "Dreaming," which is a way of telling stories. Yarrington's work explores the interface of body, light, space, and spirit in sacred spaces and art-based sites. This exhibition is organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo.

Ongoing Exhibitions

Puppets, Ghosts, and Zombies: The Sculpture of Pat Keck
Joyce and Edward Linde Gallery, Arcade Gallery, Window Gallery
Through January 18, 2004
Since the late 1970s, Andover-based artist Pat Keck has created painted wood figurative sculptures, many of them mechanical and interactive. Each detail-from the wood joinery to the clothing to the moving parts-is designed and fabricated by the artist herself. These beautifully handcrafted works reference folk art, anthropomorphic theatrical props (marionettes, ventriloquist dummies), fairy tales, and other cultural traditions to probe the existential borders of what it means to be human.

Keck creates beings that exist on the edge of humanity and consciousness: utilitarian figures like scarecrows, dummies, toys, puppets, robots, and automatons; semi-sentient beings like somnambulists, ghosts, and monsters; and a host of androgynous "men" engaged in quasi-ritualistic and mysterious activities. Keck's imaginative world is influenced by many sources that point roughly in the same direction. She is interested in folk and vernacular arts, especially those associated with carnivals, fairs, and the circus, as well as visual elements of other performing arts, most notably vaudeville and 1980s popular music (punk and glam rock). Her vision is also informed by Surrealism and Existentialism, cartoons and comics, ancient arts like totems and masks, and literary and mythic characters based on the animation of the inanimate: the Golem, Frankenstein, Pinocchio, and creatures from Oz. This exhibition is organized by Curator Nick Capasso and is accompanied by full-color catalogue.

DeCordova Collects: Gifts from Stephen and Sybil Stone
James and Audrey Foster Galleries
Through January 18, 2004
Active participants in the regional art scene for over forty years, Stephen and Sybil Stone of Buzzards Bay have collected the works of a number of contemporary New England artists. This exhibition presents highlights of the 164 works the Stones have generously given to DeCordova over four decades and includes paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures by many prominent New England and American artists such as David Aronson, Leonard Baskin, Hyman Bloom, Bernard Chaet, Alfred Duca, Robert Eshoo, Elizabeth Johansson, Conger Metcalf, Charles Sheeler, Henry Schwartz, Barbara Swan, and Karl Zerbe. This exhibition is organized by Curatorial Fellow Francine Weiss and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue.

Ron Kuivila: An Outgoing Message
Media Space @ DeCordova/Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Gallery
Through January 18, 2004
This sound art installation is composed of one channel of sound playing through
speakers in the gallery and another channel playing through numerous telephones on the wall. To hear the piece, the visitor must listen both to the telephone and the environment simultaneously. The sound itself is a collection of dial tones, rings, and busy signals from the world's telephone systems electronically synthesized and then mixed and overlapped in ways that reveal their microtonal relations while adding greater force to the moments of silence that occur in the patterns of pulsation. An Outgoing Message is organized by Curator of New Media George Fifield.

Debra Weisberg: (Sub) Surface
Grand Staircase
Through January 18, 2004
For (Sub) Surface, the latest in an ongoing series of site-specific installations in DeCordova's Grand Staircase, Boston sculptor Debra Weisberg radically violates the purity of the forty-foot tall elevator shaft wall. By introducing plaster and glass sculptural elements to the towering surface, the artist creates an illusion of potential catastrophe as the wall seems to be in the process of being blasted apart. The Museum, assumed to be an eternal storehouse of cultural treasures, is shown to suffer the same fate as all architectural constructions: decay, dissolution, and eventual collapse. The rupturing skin of the white wall also references other forms in flux, like ice flows and geological formations. This exhibition is organized by Curator Nick Capasso.

Joseph Wheelwright: Stone Heads and Tree Figures
Sculpture Terrace and Sculpture Terrace Gallery, Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport Roof Terrace
Through May 16, 2004
Boston-based artist Joseph Wheelwright vitalizes and humanizes natural elements through his sculpture. This exhibition features both familiar and new outdoor monumental stone heads and figurative tree sculptures, making this the most comprehensive showing of Wheelwright's larger works to date. Joseph Wheelwright: Stone Heads and Tree Figures is accompanied by an exhibition catalogue/brochure and is organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo.

Landscapes Seen and Imagined: Sense of Place, Part II
Dewey Family Gallery, Millipore Foundation Gallery
Through summer 2004
Part II of a group thematic exhibition on the theme of landscape selected from DeCordova Museum's Permanent Collection, this show explores a host of issues concerning the representation, perception, and meanings of space and place in Modern and contemporary American art. The themes examined in this show are linked to the educational content of The Dr. Kenneth Germeshausen Art ExperienCenter. This exhibition includes prints, works on paper, sculptural reliefs, and photographs and is organized by Director of Curatorial Affairs Rachel Rosenfield Lafo.

Events and Programming

Gallery Talks: Meet the Artists
Third Floor Lobby
Saturdays @ 3 pm
Free with Museum admission
The act of creating artwork can be just as exciting as looking at the final product. Meet New England and regional artists to discuss their work on view at DeCordova in the current exhibitions.

Puppets, Ghosts, and Zombies: The Sculpture of Pat Keck
Pat Keck January 10

Self-Evidence: Identity in Contemporary Art
Chrissy Conant February 7
Jennifer Hall February 28
Karl Baden March 6
Barbara Poole March 20
Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons March 27
Annu Palakunnathu Matthew April 3
Gerald Bergstein May 1
Denise Marika May 15

Joseph Wheelwright: Stone Heads and Tree Figures
Joseph Wheelwright May 8

Jo Yarrington: Jirimani
Jo Yarrington April 10

Family Sundays
Museum Galleries
Drop-In Sundays, 1 - 3 pm
Free with Museum Admission
Have fun with looking and hands-on activities as you share insights and discover what you value and enjoy about art-as a family. Join us on one Sunday each month as we celebrate artists' creativity through interpreting artworks in current exhibitions. This drop-in program is designed for families seeking to introduce their children to museum going and the art of seeing and is perfect for families with children ages 6-12.

January 11 Figure Fun
What makes a figure come alive? Explore the Puppets, Ghosts, and Zombies: The Sculpture of Pat Keck exhibition and see what moves you.

March 14 Character Clues
Take on the role of detective and investigate the clues that help you discover the identity of the artists in the Self-Evidence: Identity in Contemporary Art exhibition.

Eye to I Family Day
Museum Galleries
Sunday, February 8, 2004 from 1 - 4 pm
Here is a chance for you and your family to learn about all the great things that make you who you are. Get to know yourself by creating a matted self-portrait. Enjoy viewing the new exhibition, Self-Evidence: Identity in Contemporary Art, which features national artists who use contemporary art as a means of exploring different issues of identity, such as race, gender, and age.

Entertainment will be provided by famed slide guitarist Original Snakeboy, winner of multiple national slide guitar competitions. In addition to playing the slide guitar at DeCordova, he will share information about the instrument itself and the history of the blues.

Space is limited. Please RSVP by Friday, February 6, 2004, by calling 781/259-3629 or by emailing membership@decordova.org. The cost for this event is free for DeCordova Members, and the price of Museum admission for Non-Members.

What Lies in the Mirror: A Novelist on the Fictions of Identity
Gregory Maguire, Lecturer
Annual Paul J. Cronin Memorial Lecture
Dewey Family Gallery
Thursday, March 25, 2004, 6 pm
Gregory Maguire-admired author of popular and critically acclaimed novels-will consider ways in which the cultural material of films, fiction, and autobiography variously disguise and reveal aspects of the world. Central to his remarks will be to question what place the cultural material of childhood, particularly stories, is currently accorded, and why.

Though best known as a fantasy writer, Mr. Maguire has also written picture books, science fiction, and realistic and historical fiction. His bestselling 1995 novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West set in motion a series of books that would retell popular tales from the point of view of the traditionally unsympathetic character, challenging long-held beliefs on the nature of goodness, beauty, morality, justice, and perception by one's self and by others. Mr. Maguire's literary works have been transformed for both the screen and the stage (Wicked opened to rave reviews in October 2003 as a Broadway musical). His most recent novel, Mirror Mirror, represents an elaborate retelling of the Snow White story set in the political and cultural context of sixteenth-century Tuscany, with Lucrezia Borgia as the Wicked Queen.

DeCordova's annual Paul J. Cronin Memorial Lectures were established in 1981 to consider topics that are broadly focused upon changing attitudes towards twentieth-century art. They are made possible by a generous grant from the Grover Cronin Memorial Foundation. Admission is $5 for Members, and $7 for Non-Members. Reservations are requested. Call 781/259-0505.

Members' Double Discount Days!
The Store @ DeCordova
Thursday January 15, 2004, 9:30 am - 7:30 pm
Friday January 16, 2004, 9:30 am - 5:30 pm

The Café @ DeCordova
Thursday January 15, 2004, 11 am - 4 pm
Friday January 16, 2004, 11 am - 4 pm
You've asked about it, you've waited all year-and now it's here! Every year, The Store @ DeCordova and The Café at DeCordova offer special discount days to show our loyal Members just how much they mean to us. Members receive 20% off all purchases in The Store and The Café during this event-which occurs right before the beginning of the new term at the Museum School. Come shop for class art supplies, a treat for your Valentine, or a little something to lift your own winter blahs. Enjoy a delicious snack at the Café to round out the day and you'll be glad you renewed that Membership!

Museum School Gallery Exhibitions
Museum School Gallery
Ongoing
DeCordova is pleased to launch a new method of presenting student work based on themes rather than media. As of January 2004, the Museum School Gallery will offer four consecutive student shows entitled "People," "Places," "Things," and "Abstractions." The tradition of offering both faculty and camp shows will also continue.

Students will define/decide how their own works relate to each of the above themes. Work will be juried by art experts outside the DeCordova community and will be divided into groups within each show based upon experience, thus allowing students of all levels to celebrate their achievements.

January 17 - February 29, 2004
Faculty Show

March 6 - April 11, 2004
People

April 17 - May 23, 2004
Places

May 29 - July 18, 2004
Things

July 24 - September 5, 2004
Abstraction

General Information

DeCordova Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm and on selected Monday holidays. Admission is $6 per person, $4 for senior citizens, students, and youth ages 6-12. Children age 5 and under, Lincoln residents, and Active Duty Military Personnel and their dependents are admitted free. The Sculpture Park is open year round during daylight hours and is free. The Store @ DeCordova and the School Gallery are open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am to 7:30 pm, Friday through Saturday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, and Sunday 11:30 am to 5:30 pm. The Café @ DeCordova is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 3 pm. New Time: Free guided public tours of the Museum's main galleries take place every Thursday at 1 and Sunday at 2 pm as of October 2003. Free tours of the Sculpture Park are given on Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm from May to October. Visit www.decordova.org or call 781/259-8355 for further information.

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