The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston presents the exhibition Cry Joy Park—Gardens of Dark and Light by Jennifer Wen Ma.

Cry Joy Park—Gardens of Dark and Light is an investigation into the construct of a utopia, inspired by the history of Charleston, South Carolina: a cultural and artistic capital of the American South, and an exemplar of its opulence and beauty. This installation aims to present both an alluring, gorgeous and otherworldly garden, and its darker counterpart. The worlds created by the exhibition are a juxtaposition of utopia and dystopia and are presented via an immersive multisensory experience that utilizes various forms of communication to convey its message.

Cry Joy Park—Gardens of Dark and Light is co-curated by Mark Sloan, Director and Chief Curator, and Bryan Granger, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the Halsey Institute. Jennifer Wen Ma is debuting a site-specific, immersive, interactive, multimedia installation at the Halsey Institute with her studio staff as well as students from the College of Charleston. The installation includes multiple components and layers:

o Light and Dark Gardens – Oversized foliage made from cut paper transforms the gallery into an overgrown forest. As the viewer approaches parts of the garden, the foliage is triggered by the motion and reacts in different ways. The suggested narratives that run through the two gardens represent different sides of the same story or event, giving a Rashomon-like account of the complexity of human experience and perspective. Connected by a flower-vortex- portal with which audience members must directly interact, these gardens of opposites represent the utopic and dystopic aspects of a paradise. Within this large-scale installation, Ma will use multimedia elements to create a rich immersive experience.

o Ink-on-Glass Paintings – Chinese ink painted on glass are amongst the artist’s signature works. The paintings’ mirrored finish further creates an illusory landscape within the pictorial plane, as an additional meditation on the illusionary qualities of our constructed environment.

o Interdisciplinary Performances – These contrasting gardens of light and dark will also be a visual platform for interdisciplinary performances taking place during the exhibition period and providing a visceral encounter to the audience in unexpected ways. These performances will take the form of dancing, singing, drumming, storytelling, and other kinds of theatrical exchange. The Halsey Institute is collaborating with the College of Charleston Departments of Music, English, and Theatre and Dance to plan student performances in the gallery, as well as with a variety of community groups.

o Community Dinners – A vital component of this exhibition is a series of community dinners to celebrate some of those who have contributed to the making of the paradise that is Charleston but might not be been invited to the table in times past. Taking place in the galleries, these culinary feasts will feature performances and guided conversations on specific environmental justice themes related to the exhibition, such as, food security, land politics, re-entry into society, spirituality, and education. Key members of the Charleston community will be invited to recognize their contribution to elevate the disfranchised, and create engaging and meaningful dialogues, which can be translated into action.

Cry Joy Park—Gardens of Dark and Light is generously supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and The E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation.

The Department of Art at Vanderbilt University and Space 204 welcomes a new exhibition from artist and educator, Kristi Hargrove, titled, Don’t Slam the Door. The exhibition opens on June 13, 2019 and closes on August 29, 2019. An artist reception is currently not scheduled.

All exhibitions and receptions in Space 204 are free and open to the public.

Hargrove describes the work in Don’t Slam the Door as “a few paces ahead of intention.” In her studio the flow of rearranging, repetition, cutting, and layering has maintained a movement while she works.

She elaborates in her exhibition statement, “There is a dragging interest in observation, an impulse to producing work that states, ‘I saw this.’ When I back into the intention, it’s about processing the concept of the trace. A trace is a mark (here and now) of something else (not-here and not-now). Its whole meaning is to be the result of something else, to point beyond itself, to have its origin elsewhere. With a trace, one is at least reminded of a track, a previous mark. The trace is an *irreducibly complex structure of presence and absence.”

“I inherited my 2nd cousin’s scrapbook. It has long horizontal black pages where she gathered and arranged pictures as images by cutting them in awkward, yet specific, shapes on the pages,” Hargrove explains the prompt which led to her current work and studio practice.

Kristi Hargrove has been teaching at the collegiate level for over 20 years. She is currently Chair and Associate Professor of Fine Art at Watkins College of Art. She received her BA from Vanderbilt University and her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Art.With an interest in philosophy and literature, Ms. Hargrove’s work considers the physical and psychological places of seepage—between language, bodies, and relationships. She is a founding member of the artist collective Coop, a curatorial group made up of artists, curators, thinkers and professors who are committed to expanding Nashville’s dialogue with contemporary art. Her work has been shown in numerous juried shows and invitational exhibitions nationally and internationally.

*(Derrida term)

Visit her website to see more of her work at:
https://kristihargrove.com/home.html

For more information contact the Vanderbilt University Department of Art:
615.343.7241 or email Martha.l.dale@vanderbilt.edu

Please stay tuned for any updates by checking in at vanderbilt.edu/arts or follow the Department of Art on Facebook and/or Instagram.

Eviction Quilts by James Matthews

Featured documentary artist James Matthews, through his exhibition Eviction Quilts, documents clothing and bedding left on a curbside from Little Rock evictions. Each quilt represents a single eviction and serves as a sort of material archive, showing personal and physical loss of the eviction, while also transforming the fragments into something that speaks to function and comfort.

Eviction Quilts runs from Thursday, June 27, 10 am – Wednesday, August 28, 4:00 pm. An opening reception will occur on Thursday, June 27, 5-7 p.m. The reception is free and open to the public.

For more on this and other exhibitions visit https://www.asc701.org/upcoming

Sponsored by Relyance Bank & the Arkansas Arts Council.

Art Piece: Full Moon, James Matthews