WONDER - Tara Donovan

Tara Donovan
Untitled, 2014
styrene index cards, metal, wood, paint and glue

Employing mundane materials such as toothpicks, straws, Styrofoam cups, scotch tape, and index cards,

Donovan gathers up the things we think we know, transforming the familiar into the unrecognizable through overwhelming accumulation.

The resulting enigmatic landscapes force us to wonder just what it is we are looking at and how to respond.

The mystery, and the potential for any material in her hands to capture it,

prompts us to pay better attention to our surroundings, permitting the everyday to catch us up again.*

 *accompanying statement at the Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC.

WONDER - Gabriel Dawe

Gabriel Dawe
Plexus A1, 2015
thread, wood, hooks, steel

Dawe's architecturally scaled weavings are often mistaken for fleeting rays of light.

 Is is an appropriate trick of the eye,

as the artist was inspired to use thread in this fashion 

by memories of the skies above Mexico City and East Texas,  

his childhood and current homes, respectively.

The material and vivid colors 

also recall the embroideries everywhere in production during Dawe's upbringing. *


*accompanying statement at the Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC.

WONDER - John Grade

John Grade 

To commemorate the Renwick's reopening, Grade selected a hemlock tree in the Cascade Mountains east of Seattle that is approximately 150 years old - the same age as this building.

His team created a full plaster cast of the tree (without harming it),

then used the cast as a mold to build a new tree out of a half-million segments of reclaimed cedar.

Hundreds of volunteers assisted Grade, hand carving each piece to match the contours of the original tree.

After the exhibition closes, Middle Fork (Cascades) will be carried back to the hemlock's location and left on the forest floor, where it will gradually return to the earth. (accompanying statement at the Renwick)

WONDER - Maya Lin

By the time this post goes live, I'll be on a train headed to Washington, DC, settled snuggly in the quiet car, listening to an audiobook and either stitching or drawing marks on paper that echo the jostling of my hand via the movement of the train.

 Maya Lin

Folding the Chesapeake, 2015

marbles and adhesive

Maya Lin is speaking at the Renwick Friday night about her most exquiste Folding the Chesapeake and I was lucky enough to get a ticket to the event.

Of course, it's also a good excuse to view the whole WONDER exhibition for a second time. Stay tuned or follow along on my instagram feed to see what treasures are found in DC this time around.

WONDER - Janet Echelman

WONDER
 

Janet Echelman, 1.8, 2015, detail

1. a cause of astonishment or admiration

Janet Echelman, 1.8, 2015, detail

2. the quality of exciting amazed admiration

Janet Echelman, 1.8, 2015, light and shadows detail

3. rapt attention or astonishment at something awesomely mysterious or new to one's experience

Janet Echelman, 1.8, 2015, light and shadows detail

 

The powers that be at the Smithsonian Institute's Renwick Gallery must have had the Merriam-Webster Dictionary's definition in mind when they set about selecting artists to participate in the Renwick's grand re-opening in November 2015 - as did the artists when they set about creating their wonder inducing works.

Janet Echelman, 1.8, 2015,  light and shadows detail

I traveled to Washington, DC in early December to spend a few days with Lotta Helleberg (that's Lotta seated in the very first photo) as well as to peruse WONDER.

 

Janet Echelman, 1.8, 2015, detail

Janet Echelman

1.8, 2015 

knotted and braided fiber with programmable lighting

and wind movement above printed textile flooring 

Courtesy of Janet Echelman, Inc. 

Echelman's woven sculpture corresponds to a map of the energy released across the Pacific Ocean during the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, one of the most devastating natural disasters in recorded history. The event was so powerful it shifted the earth on its axis and shortened the day March 11, 2011, by 1.8 millionths of a second, lending this work its title. Waves taller than the 100-foot length of this gallery ravaged the east coast of Japan, reminding us that what is wondrous can equally be dangerous. (accompanying statement in the Renwick)

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1.8 is the second Janet Echelman sculpture that I have had the good fortune to experience. Last June, I went to Boston for As If It Were Already Here, her installation over the Rose Kennedy Greenway. To see my post about it, click here. Both works are equally breathtaking, inspiring and whole host of other adjectives.

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Stay tuned for more posts about WONDER. I'm returning this weekend to hear Maya Lin speak at the Renwick.