Hyperopia Projects, a curatorial team comprised of Helen Lee, Alex Rosenberg and Matt Szosz, has announced the artists for their highly anticipated show this June in Seattle “Superposition.” The team has had an active presence on Facebook, and has waged successful Kickstater campaign, exceeding their goal of $4000 with two days left to donate. According to announcement on the project’s Facebook page the show received over 200 submissions from 12 countries and had to add a 3rd round of jurying to the selection process due to the volume and quality of submissions. The jury which, included respected artists and professors in the glass field, Joceylne Prince, Michael Scheiner, Jack Wax and Jin Hongo deliberated over applications and narrowed the submissions to 23 artist to be shown in Seattle concurrently with the Glass Art Society conference in June.
The final list shows a roster of 23 artists, most of them recent graduated holding a MFA or BFA in Glass, and several of which were also artists shown by the Post-Glass team Yukanjali (and even includes the Anjali Srinivasan herself). Many of the artist included are versed with the glass and tend to take an approach be uses the phenomenological aspects of the material to engage and idea. Bryan Wilson carves Uranium tinted glass and puts trinities (glass from nuclear explosions) into paperweights. Studio AND (Audra Wolowiec/ Niels Cosman) has been working on an Urban Meteorite project collecting mysterious material from the street of Brooklyn and engaging it with the language of science and forensics. Brett Swenson creates images of using a blow torch to control the cracks in tempered glass and Keunae Song uses glass and projection to create optical installations. The show also includes a few artists who are know for their craft based approach such as Jay McDonnell who creates flamboyant blown sculpture and Jacob Vincent whose website shows a collection of blown and carved vessels. There are also a few artist who have no formal background in glass such as photographer Masa Bajc and digital media artist Naomi Kaly.
Two of that artists that fit the superposition model best are Michelle Mechanic and Bradley Pitts, whose work truly inhabits multiple states and meanings at once. Mechanic, who holds a BFA in glass (RISD ‘02) went on to get her law degree and was is a former district attorney of the Bronx, NYC, and is now a practicing lawyer. Her artwork examines the difference between codified law and natural law and she uses glass to record and preserve forensic evidence of different human acts. Bradley Pitts, who has both a bachelor and masters from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, both from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, uses a variety of technologies to engage different states of the body. Among his many projects, he and has recently done a multimedia project engaging the sensation of being weightless in parabolic flight.
The purpose of Superposition was stated as bring together glass related work from artists on the fringe of the genre, with disparate approaches and backgrounds to create a dialogue with can exist in the context of contemporary art practice. However, its worth noting that 12 of of the 23 artists hold degrees from Rhode Island School of Design as do the all three members of superposition and three of the four jurors. If, as stated on their website “ chaos and uncertainty result in extremely fertile ground for the growth of new ideas” one might expect more diversity in their selection. Although RISD’s approach is known for being experimental and processed based, by jurying in such a high percentage of RISD artists (most of whom have graduated in the last 5 years), one wonders if there is room for genuine discovery, or if the show is just curating people speaking the same glass-language.
Although the Superposition makes a bid to engage artist from outside the genre, the rooster looks more like an insider show. That isn’t to say that the work won’t be engaging, however the success of the show is linked to whether it can transcend the glass conversation and engage a wider audience. Having the show in Seattle concurrently with GAS is sure to deliver both opportunities and challenges for Hyperopia Projects in term of how the work is framed and contextualized, and in terms of figuring out who exactly their “wider audience” is. Superposition puts forth an ambitious mission, and judging from the amount of online support it has received many artists are hungry for it to succeed. However, a dialogue requires two voices, and although Superposition promises to be an quality show, it remains to be seen if its only speaking to itself.
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