Creative Research Laboratory
'A Strange Land' is a changing land
By Robert Faires, Fri., Jan. 30, 2009
Land changes over time but typically so slowly that we don't always perceive it. "A Strange Land," however, will change weekly, if not daily. Repeat visits to this Creative Research Laboratory/Blanton Museum of Art joint exhibit will reward the viewer with an ever-evolving artscape that explores themes of displacement, cultural modification, urbanization, and, yes, land.
That's how CRL gallery Director Jade Walker conceived the show, with five different artists contributing separate projects adapted specifically for the CRL gallery. For instance, Chris Taylor, assistant professor of architecture and director of Land Arts of the American West at Texas Tech University, is presenting a wall piece titled Dissolving Between Land and Sky: Mapping Wendover that focuses on the basin of the Great Salt Lake Desert, using drawings and photographs to make connections between its sociopolitical past and the geomorphological future. Taylor will be working on it in the gallery each Saturday, giving visitors the opportunity to watch it develop moment by moment as well as week to week.
Erica Bohm is also working in the exhibition space, in a functioning studio that she set up to produce images featuring Texas landmarks such as the Texas Capitol, McDonald Observatory, and the Johnson Space Center. The public can see her exploration of the Texas landscape evolve on the studio walls, where she will also document her journey from Buenos Aires. (Bohm is one of the first recipients of the Mapping Exchange: Artists Residency Programs, a new series of annual artists residencies at the University of Texas designed to stimulate intellectual and cultural dialogue between the university community and artists from around the world. Bohm is here through the Austin-Argentina Residency, organized and sponsored by the Blanton, CRL, and Proyecto Nexar Buenos Aires, Argentina.)
Along with Bohm and Taylor, "A Strange Land" features work by UT assistant professor Beili Liu, who creates ethereal landscapes inspired in part by her personal passage from East to West; Lynn Richardson, whose minimalist architectural forms address conflicts between industrial and natural environments; and Cauleen Smith, who explores themes of gender, culture, race, and identity through film and multimedia.
A panel discussion focusing on each artist's body of work, discovering new landscapes, and artist residencies will be held Sunday, Feb. 1, 2-4pm. A closing reception will take place Saturday, Feb. 7, 6-9pm, with a performance by Carlos Rosales-Silva, a student in the Department of Art & Art History and staffer at Okay Mountain, investigating cultural boundaries, social constructions, and race. "A Strange Land" runs through Feb. 10 at Creative Research Laboratory, 2832 E. MLK. For more information, visit uts.cc.utexas.edu/~crlab.
