February 24, 1998
Middlebury College Museum of Art Presents “After
Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary Art”
With Materials Ranging From Plastic to Plaster,
12 Artists Explore the Garden
“After Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary
Art,” an exhibition on display from March 14 through
May 31 in the Middlebury College Museum of Art on Route 30, includes
works by painters, sculptors, photographers and installation artists.
Curators Suzanne Bocanegra, visiting assistant professor
of studio art, and Emmie Donadio, associate director of the Middlebury
College Museum of Art, determined to demonstrate the variety of
ways in which contemporary artists go about their work, and put
together an exhibit that offers widely divergent views of the
artistic enterprise. The artists all make use of images and ideas
of the garden in their works, but there the commonality ends.
Included in the exhibition is work by Jenny Holzer,
whose written texts have appeared in exhibitions at major museums
throughout the world in a variety of forms, from lead signs to
engravings in stone. Holzer’s works have political content, and
some of her best known texts are the truisms: “abuse of power
comes as no surprise,” or “lack of charisma can be fatal.”
On Middlebury’s campus, a black granite bench from Holzer’s “Under
a Rock” series, which carries a feminist theme, is located
by the pond behind the Center for the Arts.
Also outdoors, just beyond the confines of the museum
walls on the plaza of the Center for the Arts, is Dan Graham’s
“Two-Way Mirror Curved Hedge Zig-Zag Labyrinth,”
a garden pavilion in the style of eighteenth-century rationalist
architecture. In May, the College’s Committee on Art in Public
Places will oversee the planting of a tree and basalt marker from
a work of “social sculpture” by the influential German
artist Joseph Beuys (1921-86). Beuys used the term “social
sculpture” to suggest his
utopian belief that art has more than an aesthetic function.
This tree and marker are from the project
“7,000 Oaks” that Beuys inaugurated in industrialized
Kassel, Germany, in 1982, giving the city a greener look.
In contrast to works arranged as permanent structures
are those by contemporary sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, who
lives in Scotland and conceives of works that are purposefully
transient. Goldsworthy is represented in the exhibition through
his photographic documentation of a cairn, a mound of stones forming
a marker, topped by alternating layers of snow and dirt.
The installation “True Love” by
Swedish artist Henrik Håkansson uses Drosophilacommon
fruit fliesalong with Venus flytrap plants. Other works include
a transportable indoor garden titled “A Moveable Land,”
by Paula Hayes, a professional horticulturist and conceptual
artist. The works of Peter Campus, a pioneer video artist,
will show computer-altered, digital photographs and a video rumination
on the theme of death.
Leslie Fry’s life-size
female figures clothed in leaves and moss, and Susan Wides’
photographs of flowers as they appear in botanical gardensin close
proximity to their identifying markerswill also grace the exhibitiion.
The plastic flowers embedded in concrete in Tony
Feher’s small sculpture are not likely to appear in botanical
gardens, and the gardeners in Kerry James Marshall’s complex collages
tend their plots of flowers or vegetables in housing projects
with names like Watts or Altgelt Gardens. Both Feher and Marshall’s
visions of the garden differ considerably from Monet’s.
At some remove from paradise too, although they are
seductive, contemplative places, are the gardens painted by Mike
Glier. With stone wall enclosures, these gardens show unmistakable
signs of combat that evoke from the viewer an unusual range of
emotional responses.
The exhibition will remain on view through May 31,
but the Dan Graham and the Joseph Beuys works will remain
permanently installed on the College campus.
“After Eden: Garden
Varieties in Contemporary Art” will open on Saturday, March
14, with a building-wide party in the Center for the Arts from
8 to 11 p.m., with music by ViperHouse, a
nine-piece jazz funk fusion orchestra. Decorations
and food will reflect a garden theme.
Exhibit Programming
Programming for the exhibition includes a gallery
talk, slide lectures and a poetry reading. A catalog of the exhibition
also will be available at the museum reception and sales desk.
The co-curators will give a gallery talk at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday,
March 17, following a pre-performance dinner at 6 p.m. at Rehearsals
Cafe in the Center for the Arts, on Route 30.
Slide lectures by artists Paula Hayes on March 31
and Mike Glier on April 15 will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Room
304 in the Christian A. Johnson Memorial Building off College
Street (Route 125).
At 4:30 p.m. on April 2 there will be a poetry reading
in the exhibition followed by a reception. Middlebury College
English Professors John Elder, Robert Pack and John Wilders will
each read poems about the garden.
Eleanor Heartney, founding writer for The New Art
Examiner and frequent contributor to Art in America, has
written an introductory essay for the catalog of the exhibition.
She will give a slide lecture in the Concert Hall of the Center
for the Arts on Thursday, April 9 at 4:30 p.m.
All events, with the exception of dinner at Rehearsals
Cafe at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17, are free and open to the
public. To make dinner reservations, contact the Center for the
Arts box office at 802-443-6433. The Museum of Art is located
in the Center for the Arts on Route 30 and is open Tuesday-Friday,
10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m.
For more information regarding the exhibition and
programming events, please contact Emmie Donadio, co-curator of
“After Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary Art” and
associate director of the Middlebury College Museum of Art, at
802-443-2240.
Program Schedule
MARCH
Saturday, March 14 (on
display through May 31), from 8-11 p.m. Museum
of Art, and Center for the Arts lobbies, Route 30.
A GARDEN PARTY ART EXHIBITION OPENING: “After
Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary Art”
Music by ViperHouse, a
nine-piece jazz funk fusion orchestra, and
hors d’oeuvres.
Tuesday, March 17, at
7:30 p.m. Museum of Art/Center for the Arts, Route 30.
GALLERY TALK: “After Eden: Garden Varieties
in Contemporary Art.”
Suzanne Bocanegra and Emmie Donadio, co-curators.
Preceded by a pre-performance dinner at Rehearsals
Cafe at 6:00. p.m. Dinner reservations required. Contact Center
for the Arts box office at 802-443-6433.
Tuesday, March 31, at
7:30 p.m. Room 304, Christian A. Johnson Memorial Building, off
College St.
ARTIST SLIDE LECTURE: Paula Hayes, New York, conceptual
artist and horticulturist included in “After Eden: Garden
Varieties in Contemporary Art.”
APRIL
Thursday, April 2, at
4:30 p.m. Museum of Art, Route 30.
POETRY READING: English Professors John Elder, Robert
Pack, and John Wilders read some of their favorite poems about
the garden. Reception to follow.
Friday, April 3, at 4
p.m. Lower Lobby, Center for the Arts, Route 30.
VIDEO: “Nature and Nature: Andy Goldsworthy”
(17 minutes). Sculptor whose work is represented in “After
Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary Art” exhibit. Refreshments
served.
Thursday, April 9, at
4:30 p.m. Concert Hall, Center for the Arts, Route 30.
SLIDE LECTURE: “After Eden: Garden Varieties
in Contemporary Art.” Eleanor Heartney, art critic and contributing
editor of Art in America. Reception to follow.
Wednesday, April 15, at
7:30 p.m. Room 304, Christian A. Johnson Memorial Building, off
College Street.
ARTIST SLIDE LECTURE: Mike Glier, Williams College,
painter included in “After Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary
Art.”
MAY
Friday, May 1 (Vermont
Arbor Day), at 5 p.m. Location near Old Chapel to be determined,
on Old Chapel Road off Route 30.
TREE PLANTING: A work from the Joseph Beuys “7000
Oaks” Project. Part of the exhibition “After
Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary Art.”
Thursday, May 7,
at 4:30 p.m. Plaza of the Center for the Arts, on Route 30.
ZIGZAGJAZZ: Student vocal and instrumental
jazz improvisation in the “Two-Way Mirror Curved Hedge Zig-Zag
Labyrinth,” 1996, by Dan Graham.
With the exception of dinner at Rehearsals Cafe at
6 p.m. on Tuesday, March 17, all events are free and open to the
public.
The Museum of Art is located in the Center for the
Arts on Route 30, and is open Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.,
and Saturday and Sunday, from noon to 5 p.m.
For more information regarding the exhibition and
programming events, please contact Emmie Donadio, co-curator of
“After Eden: Garden Varieties in Contemporary Art” and
associate director of the Middlebury College Museum of Art, at
802-443-2240.