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ConstellationCenter’s temporary public art installation is located on our future site at Kendall and Athenaeum Streets in Cambridge.
The following six works by New England artists are for display:
- Carolina Aragón: Ether II
- Ross Miller: Foreshadowing Light
- Gary Orlinsky: Proscenium
- SIPLA + NEWSAM Studio: Score
- John Tagiuri: Reclining Nudes 1-6
- Jeanne Williamson: Fence/Curtain 1.0
The installation officially opens on Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 and will remain on the site for approximately six months. Following this, we are planning to continue the installation with other selected or commissioned works, or with architectural elements designed for the Center.
Meet the Artists:
Carolina Aragón, Ether IIArtist Statement
Weightless, transparent and believed to be a medium for the transmission of light, ether was also thought to be the element occupying the upper regions of space or the heavens. As an art installation, Ether II is an imaginary landscape – evoking the qualities of air, sky and light, which seek to induce the free play of creative imagination. White semi-translucent agricultural fabric is gathered around a linear light source to create different densities in which light is diffused. Using a sensor that activates the piece at dusk, Ether II is illuminated in the dark hours creating a composition of luminous soft bodies across the eastern portion of the periphery of the site.
Biography
Carolina Aragón is an artist working in the Boston metro area, and a Visiting Lecturer in the Landscape Architecture department at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her artistic work focuses on temporary installations that explore environmental phenomena through a comprehensive investigation of materials and a strong sense of craft. Carolina obtained a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Savannah College of Art and Design, and a Master in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Design School.
Ross Miller, Foreshadowing Light
Artist Statement
An installation of lamps and strobes emerge from the site’s raw gravel bed. Light hints at a time ahead on the Constellation Center lot - theatrical moments, sparkle of a marquee, footlights, potential. Warm incandescent glow, cool pinpoints of LED light and random strobe bursts anticipate people at the balcony edge of a future concert hall. Light arouses curiosity and engages the site at the arrival of dusk. Light beckons the viewer during our dark cold winter months. Foreshadowing Light project installation collaborator is artist Timothy Kadish.
Biography
Ross Miller is a visual artist whose work integrates art into the public landscape. In site based projects he seeks to encourage community conversation in outdoor spaces, and create places for private reflection within public environments.
Rather than imposing a specific medium or content on a site, the ideas evolve through examination of a site’s ecological and social history, patterns of pedestrian activity, quality of light, and proposed future uses to create public artwork that makes direct connection with the site, heightening one’s experience of being in that specific place.
Sited in publicly accessible locations - urban squares and parks, schools, subway tunnels, along highways and over city streets - these projects evolve through collaboration with residents, school and community groups, urban planners, landscape architects and other artists. The work ranges from urban and architectural scale installations to subtile and intimate pedestrian scale sculpture.
www.rossmiller.com
Gary Orlinsky, ProsceniumArtist Statement
For the future site of the Constellation Center I am building an installation that pays homage to the mission of the site. Proscenium is a dramatic stage-like structure that emphasizes the illusion of deep space. The sides and tops of the structure are an open form, causing there to be a continually changing pattern of light and shadow. The piece is not only referential to the future function of the Center, it also references the earliest architectures of places like Stonehenge or the Parthenon in the basic post and lintel construction.
Biography
Gary Orlinsky is a sculptor who lives and works in Leverett, Massachusetts. He is a well-known public artist, whose site-specific installations have been shown in museums, parks and gardens throughout the United States—such as the Berkshire Museum, Acton Arboretum, Boston Children’s Museum, the Atrium at Dartmouth College, the Evanston Art Center near Chicago, and Forest Hills Cemetery in Boston. During the off-season he works on smaller scale assemblages and private commissions. He has led workshops at the Chautauqua Institute, for American University in Corciano, Italy, , the Smith College Museum of Art, and other sites and institutions. He currently teaches sculpture at Assumption College in Worcester and in the Commonwealth College Honor’s Program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
SIPLA + NEWSAM Studio, ScoreArtist Statement
The conductor’s score is a book of musical notations for a single piece of music that shows every instrument’s parts at once. To express how this empty gravel lot will transform into an agent of creative energy, we sculpted off of the existing fence enclosure to build an installation inspired by the movement of a musical composition. As you walk along the fenced perimeter, you will find a second fence suddenly pop out in front of you. The newborn mesh appears to fly away from its stagnant parent, its dance mapped by bars of various lengths, then sweep around and up into a large gesture before returning back to its originator. Like its namesake, our sculpture is a document that represents a piece of music in its entirety, made up of dozens of different shapes, tones, textures, and colors.
Biography
SIPLA+NEWSAM Studio is an art collaborative specializing in sculptural installations that explore space, movement, and tactility. Founded in 2008 by Vaclav Sipla and Rachel Newsam, SNS is a shared effort of the two artists. Each employ their individual skills which range from stone masonry to video art, and draw from each of their cultural backgrounds: Czech-American and Half-Japanese/Half-Anglo-American. The primary goal of SNS is to build engaging and memorable artwork while learning and enjoying every step of the way.
Vaclav started his professional art career as a stone sculptor, also working in masonry and restoration, while studying in Pilsner. Vaclav then moved to the US to receive his BFA with a minor in Entrepreneur Leadership from the School of Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA), in partnership with Tufts University, where his areas of concentration included sculpture, drawing, jewelry, and engineering.
Rachel is both an artist and a violinist, is the Executive Director for Boston String Players, and also works in sculpture restoration. Rachel earned her BFA and Diploma of Fine Arts at SMFA in partnership with Tufts University, where she focused her studies on drawing, video, and sculpture, and was awarded the SMFA Annual Sculpture Award in 2008.
John Tagiuri, Reclining Nudes 1-6
Artist Statement
Reclining Nudes 1-6 is an 8 foot high by one hundred and sixty foot long art installation inspired by the rich variation of musical instruments’ “f” hole shapes through western history. These sound holes are of a scale that activates the site and it is my intension that they will mitigate the starkness of the chain link by making it lively and upbeat!
Biography
John Tagiuri studied the soprano and alto recorders, the oboe, the bassoon and very briefly, the violin. He chose sculpture! He currently lives in a household with a violinist and a cellist and has subscribed to the BSO for much of his adult life.
Tagiuri has been creating community-focused Public Art in and around the city of Boston for over twenty years. His sculptures and installations have helped rejuvenate a large number of inner city parks, schoolyards and community centers. He has specialized in major temporary works as well as gateways, fences, outdoor classrooms and public seating. Tagiuri's projects explore social and environmental issues; they are thought provoking and engaging to people of all ages and backgrounds. Much of his work has been produced in collaboration with inner city youth and community groups. Tagiuri's projects can be seen in downtown Boston, East Boston, Boston’s South End, Dorchester, Roxbury, Brighton, South Boston, Roslindale, Jamaica Plain, Somerville, Cambridge, Newton and Gloucester Mass.
Jeanne Williamson, Fence/Curtain 1.0
Artist Statement
Jeanne Williamson’s Fence/Curtain 1.0 is a decorative barrier that gives the illusion of the curtain, valance, different layers of fabric, and the drape of the curtain in the future performance hall. It is installed on the fence surrounding the site of the ConstellationCenter construction site.
Fence/Curtain 1.0 is made of monoprinted textures of different patterns of construction fencing, and handstamped and hand painted geometric shapes, on cotton fabric that is stiffened and water resistant.
Biography
Jeanne Williamson’s artwork is created with monoprints of construction fences, using a combination of printmaking, painting, collage, and sometimes stitching, on fabric. Jeanne thinks in grids, and because of that, she fell in love with construction fences immediately after seeing them for the first time over ten years ago. She has been collecting them ever since, and has at least eighteen or more patterns in her collection. Her work has been shown at solo shows at the Danforth Museum of Art in Framingham, MA, and Providence College in Providence, RI, numerous two-person, invitational and juried shows, and has also been published in many books and magazines. The deCordova Museum of Art Corporate Art Loan Program in Lincoln, MA, and the Snyderman-Works Gallery in Philadelphia, PA both represent her work. Jeanne has a BFA in Fibers from Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts), and also a MSAEd in Art Education from Massachusetts College of Art. She is member of The Boston Printmakers, Monotype Guild of New England, and the Surface Design Association. Besides working with construction fences and fabric, she also is a web designer and an author.
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