Electric Fields
2015 Punch Gallery Juried Exhibition
OPENING RECEPTION
FIRST THURSDAY PIONEER SQUARE ARTWALK
5 NOV 5 - 8 PM
ON VIEW
5 NOV - 15 DEC 2015
THURS - SAT, NOON - 5PM OR BY APPOINTMENT
Juror: Julia Fryett (Founder, Aktionsart)
Left: Joshua Noble. Aaniscope. 2015
Right: Kevin Bell. Specimen. 2012.
Juror Statement
I thought about many things while swiping through the 1,075 entries submitted to this exhibition. But mostly, I thought about four things: Aaniscopes, rain forests, Walter De Maria and the Beatles.
The Aaniscope, by Joshua Noble, enables its owner to feel electromagnetic field radiation (EMF) - the invisible waves from radios, power lines, wifi signals, bluetooth transmissions and wireless communications that travel through our bodies each day.
The quietest place in the United States is believed to exist above a moss-covered log 678 feet above sea level, situated near a singular square inch of silence at 47° 51.959N, 123° 52.221W, in the Hoh Rain Forest at Olympic National Park.
In 1977, Walter De Maria installed a grid of 400 polished stainless steel poles in a New Mexico desert, each spaced 220 feet apart, to create his seminal work of Land Art, The Lightning Field. The poles materialize into a living, electric sculpture during a lightning storm. The poles are taller than the average person.
Ten years prior, in 1967, John Lennon wrote these words for a song called Strawberry Fields Forever:
Living is easy with eyes closed
Misunderstanding all you see
It's getting hard to be someone
But it all works out
It doesn't matter much to me
Let me take you down
Cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields
Nothing is real
And nothing to get hung about
The works presented here form an exhibition landscape comprised of electrical and natural fields - charged materials and particles, positive and negative, each dependent on the other. Several objects live between product and sculpture as critical hybrids that conceptualize wearable technologies. The spaces between screens and the distances between data sets are visualized, visibly and invisibly. Informed by the aesthetics of scrolling, loading, browsing and shopping, the gallery becomes a store.
A singular juror statement would not be conclusive, as the works encompass an asynchronous supply of disciplines, formats, concepts and subjects. But here are four more things to think about:
Distributed charges at the surface of physical interfaces: the electric shock of The Bracket that signals you have entered a census subarea where the median income is higher or lower than yours, the cathartic charge of your breath on glass, the pressure of a needle
Cash injections and blasts of wifi radiation
Particles of matter with previous histories: a handkerchief, a hand, mahjong tiles, yards, closets
Ikea, electric fields, silence
Julia Fryett
Seattle, November 2015
Artist List
Michael Handley – Philadelphia, PA
Jenny Hawkinson – Vancouver, BC
Carson Grubaugh – Norfolk, VA
Anna Mlasowsky – Seattle, WA
Hongzhe Liang – Seattle, WA
Juequian Fang – Seattle, WA
Catherine Burce – San Pedro, CA
Kevin Bell – Missoula, MT
Barbara Polster – Seattle, WA
Eli Coplan – Portland, OR
Joshua Noble – Seattle, WA
Holly Martz – Bellevue, WA
Punch Gallery
PUNCH was founded in March 2006 by a group of artists eager to participate in the dynamic cultural exchange resulting from the emergence of other artist-run galleries in Seattle.
PUNCH seeks to exhibit work that is honest, thoughtful, vocal, fearless, and fresh. Applauding individual expression, the gallery’s primary mission is to provide support and encouragement for artists to create and exhibit their work in an atmosphere free from the constraints of commercialism. Committed to excellence on every level, PUNCH promotes the visual arts as a necessary, valid, and worthwhile contribution to Seattle’s cultural growth.
Header Image: The Lighting Field (1977), by Walter De Maria