Domiciled new paintings by Meg Aubrey is the current exhibition showing at whitespace, which had its opening reception on Friday, September 7th. In this exhibition, Aubrey portrays the “psychological distance” of suburban housewives from the viewpoint of a mom herself who grew up and still lives in suburbia. Continue reading
On Saturday, September 1, Charlie Brouwer gave an artist talk on the closing day of his exhibition, “Now I Lay Me…” at whitespace. Concurrently, “Selections from the New England Primer,” an interactive sound installation by Matt Gilbert in collaboration with Ryan Peoples, opened in whitespec which runs through September 29, 2012. This was not merely coincidence. “Selections from the New England Primer” was inspired by Charlie Brouwer’s exhibition, “Now I Lay Me…” based on Brouwer’s exploration of past and childhood memories. The sound installation investigates American approaches to childhood education as evidenced in The New England Primer, America’s first school textbook and the source of the prayer to which Brouwer’s show owes its title. The homemade sound controllers, some made from salvaged electronics, convert the content of the Primer (lessons based on rote memorization, strict discipline, and Puritan values) into material for free self-directed play and investigation. Continue reading
Meg Aubrey, "Mid-Morning"
A woman with bloodied, dog-bitten lips stares at us expressionless against a stark, unpopulated background. Another, dressed in a tennis uniform with a bag over her shoulder, turns back bereft toward an anonymous opponent.
These are the subjects of Meg Aubrey’s “Domiciled,” in which suburbia’s inhabitants are pared down and scrutinized to reveal a disquieting psychological isolation. Aubrey’s middle-aged, upper-class women inhabit perfectly planned domestic realms, secure with all the trappings of the American dream: picket fences; manicured lawns; polished tree-lined streets; successful, handsome husbands and above-average children. Continue reading
Matt Haffner recently unveiled his mural, Wolfmother, on August 16th as part of “Four Coats Neighborhood Mural Project,” a semi-annual mural project sponsored by the City of Atlanta. There was quite a turnout in the Virginia-Highlands neighborhood at the Dark Horse Tavern where cold drinks and scrumptious appetizers were served up for the celebration and block party. Haffner, who has been working on Wolfmother since June, discusses the thought behind his latest mural: Continue reading
On Thursday, August 9th, Charlie Brouwer’s Now I Lay Me… opened at whitespace gallery. Wouldn’t It Be Grand?, Brouwer’s over-sized grand piano installation, greeted visitors as they made their way up the gravel driveway as one of the focal points of the evening. Equally impressive was the 14-foot tall installation of ladders ascending up into the skylights of the first room of the gallery. The piece entitled Now I Lay Me… is composed of 30 orchard ladders that cradle a resting figure. Frank Levering, owner of a 100-year-old family orchard in Arat, VA, donated the antique ladders to Charlie Brouwer for use in temporary exhibitions. As a result, Charlie gives new life and meaning to these artifacts. Continue reading
On August 2nd, Dr. Jerry Cullum gave a curator’s talk for the exhibition “From Cosmology to Neurology and Back Again” which showed at whitespace from July 6 – August 5, 2012. In this exhibition, Dr. Jerry Cullum carefully connected the works of twenty-two international and local artists exploring the ways in which cognitive sciences drive the discussion about the nature of investigation in the sciences and humanities and the resulting impact on artists. One of the artists included in the exhibition was Atlanta-based artist, Julie Sims, who has composed this short essay on her experience of “From Cosmology to Neurology and Back Again.”
♦ Check out this video of the Curator’s talk and images of the exhibition for reference provided by Julie Sims
A Rainbow Unwoven: The End is the Beginning
I arrived at Whitespace in a torrential downpour bracketed by an amazing double rainbow. It filled the sky in the east, and coming down Edgewood Avenue it appeared to spring directly from the gallery itself. Despite a general lack of superstitious belief, it was difficult not to regard this as a portent relevant to the curator talk for From Cosmology to Neurology and Back Again that was taking place within. Could there be a more symbolically appropriate coincidence? And was the fact that I was unable to help myself from interpreting it as such not also both appropriate and ironic? Continue reading
Opening reception: Thursday, August 9, 2012 | 7 – 10 pm
August 9 – September 1, 2012
Charlie Brouwer, "Now I Lay Me...", white-washed orchard ladders, dimensions vary
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep,
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
-Child’s prayer that first appeared in 1737 in
The New England Primer, America’s first school textbook.
Join us on Thursday, August 9 for the opening reception of Now I Lay Me…, artist Charlie Brouwer’s first exhibition with whitespace gallery. Brouwer is returning to Atlanta after organizing the very sucessful “Rise Up Atlanta” event last year with Flux Projects. Referencing this project that incorporated a series of stacked ladders borrowed from individuals and organizations around the city, Brouwer has once again created a ladder-based installation for whitespace gallery. The piece includes approximately twenty white-stained, old orchard ladders rising towards the ceiling with a life-size, reclining wooden figure suspended among them six feet in the air. Reminding him of the old children’s prayer, “Now I Lay Me,” he also constructed a dream-like over-sized grand piano that has seemingly serenaded the reclining figure into a deep sleep after his or her bedtime prayer.
The drawings act as an extension of his life – explorations of his past, present, and future. He makes art, so he can discover where he has been, what he thinks of the present and where he sees himself going. Pulling from meditations on prayer and the human soul, childhood memories and scenes from Atlanta, Brouwer’s work helps him make his way from past to present.
