Write about art in Burlington
An interesting idea, folks. If you are in Burlington check it out and give it a try....
What: Burlington City Arts See.Think.Do! Elusive Truths
When: May 2- June 14
Where: Firehouse Gallery, Church Street near College Street, Burlington, VT.
Details:City Arts invites students and teachers to BCA’s Firehouse Gallery to explore how a variety of contemporary artists use charts, maps and graphs to reveal themes and patterns in art, advertising and the mass media. This interactive, hands-on program will conclude in the studio classroom, where students will be encouraged to create their own unique artwork to take home.
An example:
John O’Connor
Earthquakes and Wars, 2002
Graphite, colored pencil and gouache on paper, (82.5” x 53”)
Collection of Susan Swenson and Joe Amrhein
Questions: What do you think about when you look at this piece of artwork? Does it remind you of anything? What does the artist, John O’Connor, want us to think about?
Firehouse Gallery’s Label Text:
In this drawing, O’Connor compares the dates of the ten largest U.S. earthquakes with the dates of the ten most influential American wars; framing the comparison with pertinent information such as duration, location, and severity.
The colored bars reaching to the top and bottom of the drawing correspond to the dates of the quakes, the length representing each date (i.e. 1994 = 1 inch, 9 inches...). O’Connor then connects the resulting points to create the organic form found in the center of the drawing. For him this represented a phase transition, in which one system is transformed into another.
Throughout the drawing there is other information that relates to the conceptual similarities that he observed while creating the work. He became particularly interested in the concept that each phenomena, war or earthquake possessed a critical state; an organization characterized by a tendency toward sudden and tumultuous change, one that seems to arise naturally under diverse conditions when a system gets pushed away from equilibrium. Thinking further about what determines the frequency of wars and earthquakes; O’Connor was reminded of the Butterfly Effect, a phenomenon in which a simple occurrence can have much greater consequences. The central shape resembles the scientific diagram used to determine the occurrence of this effect, yet its organic qualities resemble a type of growth system and simultaneously a contained, definable form.
