Closing Reception, Saturday September 2, 2006 6- 9 pm
During the month of August, Second Gallery will be lending itself to the Berwick Research Institute, home of the Artist in Research Residency program. The Berwick Research Institute Artist-in-Research (AIR) residency program provides artists the time, space and critical feedback necessary to make and present their work. Second Gallery, in line with its goal of providing a space for the exhibition of new installation, video, and other non-traditional approaches in the city of Boston, is thrilled to invite The Berwick into our gallery space for the month. The Berwick Research Institute will be presenting the work of Pam Larson, 2005 AIR alum.
Pam Larson's work is mediation on nature and the ways in which technology, including photography and video, can alter the natural subject. Images of nature and wildlife are shaped by the technology that captures them- by the type of lens used, how the camera can zoom in or magnify a subject, by what is included and what is left out of the frame. The perspective of the video maker continues this manipulation, their choices in subject matter, editing and soundtrack.
Pam Larson's pieces reveal such manipulations of the natural image by focusing attention on single events and slowing down the viewing and listening experience. Slowed-down and re-edited nature documentary footage uncovers a different kind of encounter with nature and wildlife, one that suggests alienation and subjectivity in our perspective. In one piece, an image of the moon is held still in the center of the frame connecting the celestial body with the artist's through the movement of the camera. In another piece, developed during Larson's residency at the Berwick Research Institute, a small card is distributed with a photograph of a forest on one side and a phone number on the other. This card invites you to call a cell phone placed in a remote wooded area. This phone call allows a live link; the listener can dial up 'nature' in real time, talk to the out of doors, but, however 'live' this connection is, it continues to be mediated by technology.
Pam Larson, presented by The Berwick Research Institute, will be on view at Second Gallery from August 12 to September 2, 2006, with a closing reception on Saturday, September 2 from 6 to 9 PM. Special August gallery hours are Friday through Sunday, 12 to 6 pm.
The BRI is supported by the LEF Foundation and The Massachusetts Cultural Council
Second Gallery. The Distillery. 516 East 2nd Street, South Boston MA.
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Visit www.berwickinstitute.org for more information on Pam Larson's AIR project.