Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Mia Mulvey at Vertigo Art Space



After the Biographic opening on Friday we walked down to the opening at Vertigo Art Space (also on Santa Fe Dr.) where we saw a great show by Mia Mulvey. It was exceptionally installed - balancing areas of gridded patterning (see above) with more lyrical, curvy positioning on the wall (as seen with the giraffe skulls). Her use of color was restrained - consisting of mostly monochromatic skulls placed on the walls and on the floor. While the subject of extinction has been explored in a variey of ways, I found her approach to be quite fresh. I'm really glad to have caught the show - it will be up September to October. Her statement on the work is as follows:

"This body of work is taken from 3-dimensional prints of actual biological specimens. Replicating anatomy that is "true" and tied to a once-living, individual animal has been central to this work. These animals exist as X-ray CT scans of specimens in the Digital Morphology Library at the University of Texas in Austin. The 3-D scans were then printed on a 3-D printer and/or CNC milled out of foam and reproduced in porcelain.

The animals I have chosen to work with are all protected and thus threatened in the wild. They represent a larger population of animal species and their current status in the world. As humans, our views of these animals, and all of nature, is most often as a place “out there”, limitless and enduring. Our views are also often cluttered with romantic notions of exotic travels and attractive museum displays.

Our world's animal population is dwindling due to the fragmentation and loss of habitat from deforestation, farming, human encroachment, hunting, and climate change. These works deal with the ideas of beauty, collection, extinction, death and ultimately our relationship with nature."

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