Sifting: Eric Kniss

Sifting

Eric Kniss
April 24 - June 8, 2019

ARTIST STATEMENT

The key concerns in my work have to do with notions of the value of physical labor, the accumulation of material as evidence of time, and challenging prevailing assumptions about material, its uses, and hierarchies of value. I have used non-traditional materials like rope, unfired porcelain pots, and clay dust (industrial Kaolin). I am interested in discovering ways that material might visually reveal (or challenge assumptions of) its own characteristics. This is accomplished by implementing simple but concentrated and repetitive physical activities like winding, sifting, stacking, or compressing, creating contextual surprise as a result of process over time. I am interested in the capacity of physical labor to generate a visceral sense of connectedness to place. The sifting of Kaolin produces a tenuous situation of delicacy and impermanence that creates tension between the embedded sense of investment and the ephemeral nature of the result.

Over time I have become increasingly aware of the performative aspects of my work and have thought long about how to open the process to viewers without sacrificing the solitary, contemplative space necessary for its making. The specifics of the Cube have allowed me to put forward one scenario as a solution. For this exhibition I have closed the gallery space to public view and used video feeds to provide viewers access to the work and the process of its making via TV monitors in the gallery and online viewing options.

The situations described above build on the work I have been pursuing for a number of years, and the use of technology that mediates the viewer’s experience of the work bring new questions into the mix that I find very compelling. For example: What is the ontological status of the object of art in the context of mediated experience? What is the nature of knowledge in an intensely mediated reality?

This exhibition has been funded in part by a Faculty Research Grant from Bridgewater College, Bridgewater VA.

ARTIST BIO

Eric Kniss earned a Master of Fine Arts from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Bethel College, North Newton KS, and an Associates of Art from Hesston College, Hesston KS. Kniss has been awarded the Joan Mitchell MFA Grant (2010) and is a fellow at the Hambidge Center for Creative Art and Sciences (2015). His work has been exhibited in various venues including the Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro NC), CUE Art Foundation (NYC), Lexington Art League (Lexington, KY) and Staunton Augusta Art Center (Staunton, VA). Kniss teaches a wide range of courses in the Art Department at Bridgewater College, Bridgewater VA.

Lost and Preserved: Eun-Kyung Suh

Lost and Preserved

Eun-Kyung Suh

May 3 - 31

ARTIST STATMENT

Suh will construct multiple pentagonal and hexagonal boxes that can be arranged next to one another on a wall in appropriate patterns symbolizing ethnic enclaves. Her focus is the assimilation process of immigrants of color and their formation of ethnic concentrations in the settled areas. Immigrants often cluster in close geographic areas and develop migrant networks, thus forming ethnic enclaves. The transitional phase of learning a new language and social norms of the country restricts immigrants’ activities within the enclave and subsequently sequesters them from the larger societal context. These constructed ethnic enclaves act as havens where their heritage can be preserved and fortified.

No Citation Needed

No Citation Needed

January 15 - March 23

National Humanities Center
7 TW Alexander Dr.
Research Triangle Park, NC 27709

In the second partnership between VAE and the National Humanities Center, NHC questioned VAE on building a show that envelops the concept of “transference of knowledge”. That question took over a weekly staff meeting and lead to a long discussion on what does that mean, what does that look like, and how is that implemented. As a staff, VAE has backgrounds in traditional education through teaching in public schools and universities, professional facilitation, and then our own experiences in secondary education. That conversation went in an array of directions from that obvious first thought of traditional education to those experiences that not only teach but shape one, such as standing next to a mother or grandparent as the cook. Does the concept of teaching, learning, and passing down knowledge change when its outside of a system? What if that system is broken for a certain group? How can or do people and communities respond when they find that system lacking or possibly not there? That spectrum of possibilities for teaching, learning, and passing on knowledge is what we asked artists to try to represent through their own practices or experiences.

Artists

Jessica Burke
Charlotte, NC

Melinda Fine
Raleigh, NC

Rene Galvan
Boston, MA

Denise Holland
Vancouver, British Columbia

Bridget Leslie
Durham, North Carolina
New York, New York

Cara Smelter
Raleigh, NC