As the most recent show in the Coleman Burke Gallery conveys, creating nature can result in beautifully organized chaos.
The art gallery, located in Fort Andross and co-directed by John Bisbee and Mark Wethli, Bowdoin art professors, is currently home to an original installation, "Down Back," by Philadelphia artist Astrid Bowlby. The gallery, founded by Bisbee in the winter of 2007, is a spacious room right beside local cultural hot spot, the Frontier Café.
"I love empty space, but this space was screaming for this. It was serendipitous, and as easy and fun as I anticipated," Bisbee said. "We are able to hand the space over to the artists with the only stipulation that they have a dialogue with the space."
"Down Back," is the sixth and current exhibit. It is concurrent with her show at the nearby Icon Art Gallery. Bowlby's show at the Coleman Burke Gallery is original work created in the space.
"She took a huge chance with this show," Bisbee said. "I'm proud she was able to take this leap with us."
Bowlby has worked in drawing for the past eight years, and returns to sculpture with this work.
Bowlby's installation emulates a paradox: arranging objects in a state of seeming disarray.
"One of the great things about this installation is how it bridges a gap between the organic and the seeming randomness," Bisbee said.
Wethli agreed. "There is a sense of great precision and order and at the same time a natural quality, like a Zen garden," he said. "We gave Astrid the opportunity and she used it as we hoped, to push a new boundary."
The space and its history were her foremost inspirations. For example, she uses long rolls of paper that hearken back to the time when Fort Andross was a mill.
Bowlby liberally employed both color and form.
"As I spent more time in the space and looking out the windows, the local color was a great source of inspiration," she said. "I had the desire to gather in or list beloved things. Everything was chosen because I love it."
"I also hate it in a way. I used objects from daily life that make people feel their own two feet relative to the space. I may be honoring domesticity, but there is a beauty and drudgery to repetitive simple tasks. A kitchen is not unlike a studio. You make messes there and you clean them up. It's just as honorable to make a good sculpture as a good apple pie. And the pie you get to eat!" she added.
But this domestic flavor is not the main component of inspiration.
"I was inspired by childhood experiences, and referenced this whimsical idea of how scale is used in fairy tales. Many young kids peered in as I was working on it and wanted to know what the heck I was doing in there," she said.
Bowlby is happy with the result. "I am beyond happy with this installation. People can get set in their ways, and this project allowed me to pull out all the stops and gave me new ideas for the future," she said.
Bowlby will give a lecture on Tuesday, November 11, at 7:30 p.m. at Kesge Auditorium in the Visual Arts Center.