Local Art Seen: Free Range Trials with Kathy McTavish and Cecilia Ramon

Global water currents mapped in the grass.

Sunday afternoon Kathy McTavish and Cecilia Ramon had two new exhibitions on display at The Barn in Wrenshall. If my facts are correct this is the first joint event by McTavish and Ramon since the 2012 collaboration called holy fool at Sacred Heart in Duluth.

Under threatening skies cars began arriving with numerous local notables gathering for the opening reception for the two non-traditional artists. Rebecca Krinke noted that some people drove here from the Twin Cities to see/experience this. Former DAI director Annie Dugan, Ken Bloom from the Tweed, Judge Dale Wolf, Emily Swanson from the Oldenburg House, David Beard from UMD and others were numbered among those who attended.

Cecilia Ramon's map detailing global water current flow patterns.

Kathy McTavish's digital multi-media experience had been set up in the basement of the barn, an audio-visual delirium of projected performing patterns. Is it random? Has this been created through code? Or is it a program of sorts that has been modified.

Kathy McTavish explained that the raw code, compressed code, is like poetry but it goes in many directions. In a sense it's an audio-visual alphabet.

In explaining her work McTavish provided a new understanding of the World Wide Web, comparing it to theater. In theater we have the visible part of the performance, what the audience sees. And then there is a backstage, or behind the curtain, where there is action but it is hidden from the audience. In a sense, code is what takes place backstage. What we experience -- from YouTube to text and graphics, hyperlinks and music -- are the front of stage results of what we do not see, the coding choreographed by the programmer, in this case the artist, Kathy McTavish.

I sat for a bit in the basement of the barn and attempted to capture in words the sense of being there, ineptly. The photos help contribute more effectively. Similar to her Chance display this past year at the Tweed, the context and textured surfaces gave a totally different feel to the display.

Transitions
Audio Aural Visual
Blue-White-Black
Shades of Grey
Patterns Morph
Mutate in Symmetrical
Asymetrical Designs
Yellow Brilliance
enters in
2-D Flat Screen Panels
yet the spheres move back
and then forward to create
perception of depth.
Now Blue/Black and White
cylindrical movement
Centering in Harmony.
Bells, Humming
Stretching sounds
slicing and shuffling
clicks, water droplets,
drumsticks clacking, tapping...

Cecilia Ramon's exhibition filled the upstairs portion of the barn, as well as a sundial and map of the world's oceanic currents "etched" in the lawn. (Photo at top of page.) Sundials have been used for centuries as a means of measuring time, and we were treated to an instructive presentation via Skype by a pair of experts on sundials from Italy, Silvano Roilo and Antonio Rovelli. In the presentation we learned what a sundial is, saw examples of different types of sundials from Renaissance times with examples from the Milano Cathedral, St. Petronio's Church in Bolgna, and other conceptions in Florence, Rome and elsewhere. 

Walking the line, an interactive lesson in oceanography.

Ramon's outdoor ocean current pattern served as a highly instructive interactive map. We were ushered into a line to walk along the path as she explained how the currents circulate Antarctica and flow up along the coasts and circle about the globe, sometimes close to the surface and other times deep down below. 

Here are more images from the Free Range Trials:

 Free Range Trials is a lab for artistic process and creative experimentation through the exhibition of work by Kathy McTavish and Cecila Ramon. The lab will be open daily between 2 and 5pm from August 26 through September 3. 

Related Links
A page of examples of sundials in Italy
A 2012 Response to Holy Fool 

Meantime art goes on all around you. Engage it.

A New Epicenter Forming on the South Side of Town: Upcoming Happenings in Carlton and Wrenshall

It's Jazz Weekend and Pippi will be Cookin' at the O on both Friday and Saturday evening. Pippi, Daniel & friends will be here to give you a soul-satisfying uplift.

Details HERE

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NOTEWORTHY
Glenn & Emily Swanson began the summer with an ambitious schedule that included Movies at the O, a Honey Bee Festival and more. This coming Saturday the Oldenburg House Arts and Cultural Community has lined up an afternoon and early evening of music as a fundraiser for Noteworthy Kids. The Family Music Picnic will kick off at 1:30 with the Moonlight Community followed by Pippi Ardennia at 2:45, Robot Rickshaw at 3:30 and the Big Time Jazz Orchestra at 4:00.

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If you've never been to the Free Range Film Festival in The Barn on County Road 1 outside Wrenshall, well, let's just say it's a wonderful venue. August 26 will be the opening reception for a new art exhibition titled FREE RANGE TRIALS, featuring work by Kathy McTavish and Cecilia Ramon.

Having followed Kathy McTavish's creative explorations since 2011, I can honestly say that the one consistent feature throughout can be summed up with this rule of thumb: Expect the unexpected.

According to the announcement:

In farming terms, field trials are an opportunity to determine effectiveness of experimental techniques in agriculture. In the arts, experimental trials are usually only visible in the artist studio. Free Range Trials functions as a visible lab for artistic process and creative experimentation through the exhibition of work by two contemporary artists -- Kathy McTavish and Cecila Ramon - that will be open for viewing and audience interaction from August 26 through September 3, 2018 from 2-5pm daily.

From a birds-eye perspective, Free Range Trials explores the cross section of culture and agriculture. An apt metaphor for the space can be found in the agricultural features of hedgerows. These dense spaces form boarders on the farm that foster beneficial insects. They are a little more wild and diverse and they function as an overlapping ecosystem where the more highly controlled aspects of the farm intersect with the unmitigated aspects of the natural world. They can be planned and planted but they are designed to invite chance and wild growth. These spaces serve as a metaphor for Free Range Trials. It is a literal as well as conceptual space on the margins of both art and farming where we are allowing for experimentation to foster beneficial diversity that can be brought back into both of those "fields" of study.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH DEPT.
Kathy McTavish recently completed a year-long solo exhibition at the Tweed Museum of art and was recently selected as an "Artist on the Verge" by Northern Spark. She is the recipient of numerous Jerome grants and is a recognized voice in new media art. Cecilia Ramon has exhibited work on an international scale and recently returned from presenting her work in Iceland and the Netherlands. She completed her masters in systems thinking from the Schumacher Institute and presented her work at a symposium last fall entitled "Terrain".

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BOTTOM LINE
There's a lot of creative energy at play on the South side of town. If you've never been to the Oldenburg House, I'd almost make it an imperative to become familiar with it. Saturday afternoon will be a beautiful day for a short drive to this "Paradise in a Clamshell" on the edge of Jay Cooke State Park, adjacent to the Munger Bike Trail.

Related Links
In 2014 Kathy McTavish, along with Joellyn Rock and friends, assembled The Sophronia Project in the Barn @ Wrenshall.
Oldenburg House website: OACC.US
Oldenburg House Jazz Education Programs

Meantime art goes on all around you. Let the music move you.

Three New Shows, One Big Night at DAI

Morrison Gallery taking shape for opening.

If Thursday the 17th is not yet on your calendar, you'll need to mark it now for three very cool new shows opening at the Duluth Art Institute Depot Galleries. The free event, sponsored by GPM Inc., will run from 5 - 7 p.m.

In the Great Hall you will get to sashay about the 2013 Membership Show, which features one new piece created within the past year by DAI member artists. It's always a treat and worth a stop no matter what else is happening or not happening. Upstairs, however, there are two additional exhibitions, which is what will make this Thursday's opening extra special.

The John Steffl Gallery will play host to the 2013 Emerging Photographers exhibit. And inside the Morrison Gallery you will discover Confluence / Confluencia, featuring new work by Carla Stetson and Cecilia Ramon. I received two emails reminding me that the Stetson/Ramon installations are not to be missed. Here's an excerpt:

Hey Ed, I just wanted to see if you have this on your radar! The Art institute is showing work by Cecilia Ramon and Carla Stetson.... I have been stopping by to see the progress of their installation, and it is just amazing! The opening is the same night as the member's show, and they are working, with some of Carla's students from Ithica, NY art school, on the work all this week, and probably into the weekend a bit.

All Duluth is familiar with Stetson's Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial at the intersection of Second Avenue East and First Street. She was also responsible for a Lakewalk scultpure of importance.

Both Stetson and Ramon were collaborators in the Holy Fool event at Sacred Heart this past November which also included a performance by cellist Kathy McTavish and poet Sheila Packa as well as contributions by Cathy Podeszwa and Molly Tillotson.

Much of the work of Cecilia Ramon has been about the process of making peace with fear through making art. Ramon, a Duluth artist and professor, has used art as a means to bring internal resolution from a troubled childhood growing up in Argentina. Many Americans were either unaware or have forgotten the upheaval and horrors wrought when the military ruled from 1976-1983. Tens of thousands of civilians were tortured and disappeared. The terror left deep scars on many hearts and a nation's conscience.

According to a review by former DAI director Samantha Roth Gibb of one of Ramon's installations a few years ago, "Her pieces take time, which is an integral element in the artist’s delicate and intentional creations in wood and paint. Her most recent solo exhibit at the Duluth Art Institute titled Besides Fear was an installation that invited viewers to search within themselves for resonance. Comprised of several works in wood, the show displayed many moods and nuances. Ramon says this exhibit gave her a feeling of satisfaction she hadn’t experienced before."

Her installation in November as part of Holy Fool was nuanced and haunting.

For what it's worth, if I see you at the opening it's my guess that you'll also want to return another day to engage some of these works while in a more contemplative frame of mind. There will be plenty to experience.