Over the next few days, Visual Studies Workshop (31 Prince
Street) is offering a set of engaging shows and events. On Wednesday, November
30, check out “Bad Objects: A Night of New Media from RIT.” Taking place
from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the VSW Auditorium, the one-night show explores digital
art and new media, featuring interactive performances, media installations, and
technological experimentations by local, national, and international artists.
Guest-curated by Charles Baldwin, RIT associate professor of
the Department of English, and Charlie Roberts, RIT assistant professor in the
School of Interactive Games and Media, the show’s featured artists are
Josephine Anstey, Sandy Baldwin, Al Biles, Michelle
Harris, Charlie Roberts, Rick Scott, and Gabriel Tremblay-Gaudette.
There is a suggested donation of $5.
VSW will also host a First Friday event on December 2, at
5:30 p.m. Project Space Artist-in-Residence Dan Larkin
will discuss his analog photo project, “Take Me to the River,” with VSW Director
Tate Shaw. Larkin’s project, which has been in progress in the space since
October, explores the growth and development of Rochester based on its proximity
to the Genesee River and how its importance has ebbed and flowed over time.
Larkin created a series, over many years, of photographs shot
no more than 500 feet from the river throughout Rochester. He spent his time at
VSW editing the images into a coherent body of work for the exhibition capping
his residency and for the layout of a future book.
“The entire body of work was shot with film, and I have
literally hundreds of prints in varying sizes that I’ve made in the color
darkroom, a rarity in this digital age,” Larkin says in a provided statement. “I
learned much about the natural and cultural heritage of my home town from the
time exploring these ‘pleasant banks’ — the literal translation of the Seneca
Nation’s moniker, ‘Genesee.'”
Also on Friday, December 2, is the opening reception for “Land
Form,” from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the gallery and auditorium, featuring photographic
prints, sculptures, and digital pieces by Thomas Albdorf,
Lionel Bayol-Themines, Martin Brink, Mark Dorf, Katie
Efstathiou, Carolyn Janssen, Anastasia Samoylova, and Gary Metz.
The show, organizers say, represents “a contemporary shift in
landscape depiction.” In these works, a completely human-altered landscape is
experienced through layers of technological mediation, providing a fragmented
sense of reality.
Additionally, VSW has invited local artists Laurie O’Brien,
Alysia Kaplan, Ashwin Manthripragada, Tara and Gordon
Nelson, Dan Varenka, Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge, and CHB x, who work in film, video, light, sound,
and performance, to exhibit media installations around VSW as part of the
exhibition.
“Land Form” continues through March 18, 2017, although the
media installations will only be on view through December 10. Gallery hours are
Tuesday through Friday, noon to 7 p.m. and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Admission is free. For more information, call 442-8676 or visit VSW.org.
This article appears in Nov 30 – Dec 6, 2016.
