Artscape 2014 Curated by Daydreams + Nightmares Aerial Theatre (DNA Theatre), Aerial Arts Arena hosted aerial artists, dancers, and circus acts from around the region high above Charles Street. Performers showcased diverse styles of movement and dance on aerial cloth, trapeze, hoop, and a number of other apparatuses. Additionally, Aerial Arts Arena housed music from live DJs throughout the weekend, including during Artscape After Hours.
As the sun went down, Charles Street came alive with Artscape After Hours. People could wander through the illuminated streets, fascinate their senses and experience one or all of the fun activities After Hours had to offer including the Aerial Arts Arena, Field Day,the Art Car Show, Ballroom Dancing in the Garden, Gamescape, a Ferris Wheel and “In the Neighborhood” events.
Artscape 2014 featured many artworks exploring the notion of movement, including sculptures. Mobiles, Whirligigs, Automata, Rube-Goldbergs & other Kinetic Contraptions was a temporary outdoor artwork exhibition of kinetic sculptures. This exhibition runs from Artscape through Friday, October 31, 2014.
Artists:
Steven Baker (Baltimore, MD) creates a field of five dancing sculptures made of steel and colored glass. The sculptures move through wind power.
Jennifer Becker (Baltimore, MD) pays homage to the handmade lawn decorations, community gardens and green spaces in Baltimore by creating a sculpture that transforms recycled material into a large bouquet of spinning flowers. She utilizes photo transfer techniques on canvas that will then transform into large pinwheel like flowers.
Christian Benefiel (Keedysville, MD) uses sailcloth, aluminum and wire mesh to construct a large cylindrical sculpture that rocks and rotates along a central base pivot point.
Paul Daniel (Baltimore, MD) includes three of his metal and mirror whirligigs into the exhibition: Tattletoo, 2008; Red Eye, 2007 and Argus, 2006.
Steven Jones (Baltimore, MD) creates a motorized merry-go-round like sculpture celebrating five of Marylander’s favorite foods: crabs, corn-on-the-cob, oysters, chicken and Smith Island Cake.
Patrick McDonough (Washington, D.C.) produces 132008-solar powered sculpture, a work that employs a passive solar tracker, a device that utilizes coolant reservoirs to slowly rotate an aluminum armature so the surfaces of the tracker panels stay square with the sun, to control its movement. The sculpture will also contain high octane glow in the dark paint that will charge during the day and be illuminated at night.
Nut and Bolt by J. Arthur Benson, 1982
Art Benson lives in Baltimore where he was on the faculty of the Maryland Institute College of Art for three decades, from 1972 to 2002, serving as the head of the undergraduate sculpture department. He recieved this commission in 1981 from James Pettit, the project architect for Ayers Saint (today Ayers Saint Gross), who designed the new addition to the Mount Royal Elementary/Middle School.
The artwork was to be developed as part of an elevated two story pedestrian bridge connecting the new building to the older one. The walkway is clad in metal panels that were painted yellow, white, and red arranged to emphasize the mechanical nature of the bridge. The bridge functions as a visual anchor but also hides structural colomns that turned out to be needed to support the bridge above the plaza area. Two large L brackets, one designed for each side of the elevated passagway, appear to have been fixed in place by four nuts and bolts.
The architect and artist collaborated to produce a work of art that would be fun, colorful, and visually related to a tinker toy. After all, this was a school for young children and Nut and Bolt would be installed near where these students would play every day.
See more of Art Benson’s work at www.arthurbenson.com
Want to know more about Baltimore Public Art? Pick up the book Outdoor Sculpture in Baltimore: A Historical Guide to Public Art in the Monumental City by Cindy Kelly.
This is the thirty-first in a series of interviews with each of the Sondheim Award Semifinalists. Finalists have been announced, and will be on exhibit at the Walters Art Museum June 21 to August 17; those not selected as finalists with be exhibited at the Decker, Meyerhoff and Pinkard Galleries at MICA July 17 to August 3, 2014.
Name: John Zimmerman
Age: 27
Website: www.johnzimmerman.com
Current Location: Waverly- Baltimore, MD
Hometown: Waldorf, MD
School: University of MD, Baltimore County
What is your day job? How do you manage balancing work with studio time with your life?
I am currently a dog walker as well as a bartender. I try to string together both jobs and work as many hours as a can for a few days, and then have off for a couple days afterwards to decompress and think about my art. On a good day dog walking can serve as both work and time to contemplate life, as well as allow me to take photographs.
How would you describe your work, and your studio practice? I mainly work in photography. For me, the power of photography lies in its ability to flatten real world objects. The viewer interprets the image as a three dimensional space, but the composition is intrinsically rooted in the flat dimension. I try to compose my images, whether they are portraits or landscapes, as a minimal spatial study. Lately I have been working on sculptures and paintings that similarly explore these flattened dimensions.
What part of artmaking to you like or enjoy the most? The least? Editing photographs can be tedious, but at this point I embrace the meditative qualities of it.
What research do you do for your art practice? Reading a lot helps, as well as taking in and processing the mass of imagery that bombards us everyday.
Do you ever get in creative dry spells, and if so, how do you get out of them? Of course. Whenever I do I find its best to let it run its natural course. I go exercise, and enjoy my life for a few days, or a week, or a month. Eventually a good idea will come my way, and it won’t have the appearance of being forced.
How do you challenge yourself in your work? I think the poster in the office of our guidance counselor’s was on to something when it read “push yourself” or “give it your all” or whatever. I have post-its around that egg me on. Again, like I said before, you don’t want to force yourself to be creative. That said we all need motivation, and post-its criticizing me seem to work. I also find it is good practice to be as meticulous and overly critical of a final product.
Presented by Kevin Rice and Andy Busti of Process Reversal Film Collective
TIME
Saturday July 12 & Sunday July 13th 12-8 pm
LOCATION
Current Space Community Darkroom
421 N. Howard Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
DESCRIPTION
In this two day workshop, participants will study the craft of producing black and white, silver gelatin emulsion by formulating, mixing and coating emulsion onto cellulose acetate and various other materials. Theories concerning emulsion chemistry and emulsion production will also be explored in this workshop, providing participants with a foundation to develop their own processes and methodologies.
REQUIREMENTS
Previous experience working with film is not required for attending the workshop, though some film processing experience is recommended — In any event, we will do everything possible to clarify questions that you may have before, during or after the workshop.
Additionally, participants are encouraged to bring in film negatives or positives for contact printing, or objects for photogramming.
COST
$30
REGISTRATION
Please pre-register by July 8th via Paypal
The workshop is limited to 10 people.
The Walters Art Museum and the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts previewed the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize: 2014 Finalists Exhibition this past Friday, June 20th.
The Sondheim Artscape Prize is a $25,000 fellowship awarded each year to visual artists living and working in the Greater Baltimore region. M&T Bank has partnered with BOPA to establish the M&T Bank Sondheim Finalists’ Awards, which provide a $2,500 honorarium for each of the remaining finalists not selected for the fellowship.
Organized by the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts in conjunction with Artscape, America’s largest free arts festival, the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize: 2014 Finalists Exhibition will be on view at the Walters Art Museum June 21 – August 17, 2014. Now in its ninth year, the Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize recognizes the achievements of a visual artist living or working in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Northern Virginia and Southeastern Pennsylvania. The winner of the $25,000 Sondheim Prize will be announced at a special ceremony and reception at the Walters Art Museum, Saturday, July 12, 2014 at 7 p.m.
2014 FINALISTS:
Lauren Adams (Baltimore, MD) Kyle Bauer (Baltimore, MD)
Stewart Watson (Baltimore, MD) Marley Dawson (Washington, DC)
Neil Feather (Baltimore, MD) Kyle Tata (Baltimore, MD)
Shannon Collis (Baltimore, MD)
The Janet & Walter Sondheim Artscape Prize is made possible through the generous support of the Abell Foundation, Alex. Brown & Sons Charitable Foundation, Baltimore Festival of the Arts, Charlesmead Foundation, Ellen Sondheim Dankert, France-Merrick Foundation, Hecht-Levi Foundation, Legg Mason, M&T Charitable Foundation, Henry & Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Foundation, John Sondheim and The Whiting-Turner Contracting Company.
The exhibition and opening event at the Walters Art Museum have been generously supported by the Talkin Fund of the Columbia Foundation, Time Group Investments, Rachel and Joseph Rabinowitz, The Zamoiski, Barber, Segal Family Foundation, and the Greif Family Fund.