RIDGEFIELD, CONN.- The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is presenting FOUND Outside, six projects by artists working with salvaged materials and reclaimed objects, through October 21, 2012.
The FOUND Outside artists expand the body of work presented at the Museum by introducing a variety of new materials and objects—ranging from steel barrels to bricks to translucent plastic. Beyond the diversity of media, the scale and weight of the objects in the garden contrast with the work in the galleries. The artists are keenly aware of the way in which contexts such as architecture and nature can enhance, redefine, and extend the physical scope of an artwork.
Alyson Baker, executive director of The Aldrich says, “Both the indoor and outdoor works by all twelve artists focus attention on how prevalent and diverse repurposing as an artistic practice continues to be in contemporary art.”
The use of found materials and objects has been a critical component of art making since the inception of Modernism at the beginning of the twentieth century. “By extending the exhibition into the outdoor space, a new range of materials is brought into play, while the work is positioned to interact with the distinctive topography, landscape, and architecture of The Aldrich campus,” said exhibitions director Richard Klein. He continues, “The project will enable visitors to enjoy the sculpture garden while making comparisons between the outdoor work and that on view in the galleries.”
This presentation is the third implementation of a new curatorial programming schedule that exclusively presents seasons of diverse exhibitions where the work is linked by a common theme.
Joy Curtis
Camouflaged in a grove of mature pine trees, Hades is an accumulation of scraps of architectural moldings cast in bronze and configured to create a singular, ghostly form in the landscape.
Ethan Greenbaum
Paneling, an architectural frieze reconfigured specifically for The Aldrich’s façade, replicates naturally patterned materials such as marble, granite, and stone through a series of reproductive techniques.
Jason Clay Lewis
Black Tide Tower is a sixteen-foot-high column constructed of blackened oil drums. Referencing Rome’s Trajan’s Column, the surface of the work is animated by rusted red engravings of galloping knights on horseback and war atrocities rendered in a graphic style reminiscent of the Middle Ages or early Renaissance.
Saul Melman
Best of All Possible Worlds, inspired by a photograph of an empty emergency room, is made of vacuumformed casts of old wooden doors, laid out in the floor plan of a Brooklyn apartment in a way that speaks of presence and absence.
Jessica Segall
The Soft Obtains a Central Position takes the form of a child’s couch cushion fort. The work appears playful, precariously balanced, light, and soft; however, it is modeled after a bunker or blast shelter and speaks to the dichotomy between appearance and actuality through the play of children and the realities of war.
Jean-Marc Superville-Sovak
Malthusian Landscape is a twenty-foot-wide map of the United States made from bricks salvaged from a defunct brickworks in the Hudson Valley. Sovak plays the embossed “EMPIRE” trade-name on each brick against the political connotations engendered by the immediately recognizable silhouette.
