Opening Reception: Saturday October 28th, 8 - 10 pm.
Opening reception will feature temporary sculptures by Jeremiah Teipen.
Second Gallery is pleased to present the second installment of PEACE KING MOTHER NATURE, an exhibition in two parts that will span the fall. PEACE KING MOTHER NATURE explores the conceptual terrain of the dichotomy of "nature" and "culture," in an attempt to rethink the authority of this distinction in regards to gender, race, technology, and popular culture. Scott Lenhardt, Andrea Loefke, Ezra Rubin, and Jeremiah Teipen, the four artists whose work comprises the second installment of PEACE KING MOTHER NATURE, all create works that challenge the saliency of the conceptual opposition between "nature" and "culture" and present opportunities to rethink these allegedly innate categories. This exhibition begins with the premise that the nature/culture dichotomy is at the center of a web of other dichotomies, such as the conceptual opposition between femininity and masculinity, the body and the mind/soul, wilderness and rationality, fluidity and autonomy, all of which must be reexamined if we are to move forward into new ways of thinking, being, and understanding subjectivity and culture.
Rip Van Winkle, by Scott Lenhardt, is a miniature modeling clay rendition of the classic story character on a bed of intricately molded grass - a sly investigation of folklore, fantasy, and the march of technology. One early morning when the campfire was still smouldering..., by Andrea Loefke includes a large upholsteryesque floral teepee that is molded on four sides with what appear to be bustles or butts, in a poignant exploration of the linkages between femininity, bodies, nature, clothing, camping, and the home. Jeremiah Teipen's interactive machine/organisms, Transparent and Electrocute Euthanasia III, combine LEDs, video cameras and monitors, glass orbs, fake hair, and baby Nikes into sculptures that speak to the hybridization of nature and technology and the confusing excess of gadgets in a strangely endearing manner. At the opening, Teipen's Smoking Grass and Smoking Snow - fog-producing faux grass and faux snow mountains - will be in the hall outside of the gallery. Ezra Rubin's videos Amphitheater, MJB=Storm, and Killa Cam's Wolfpack, are an examination of fantasy, celebrity, hip hop, natural forces, nostalgia, and childhoods spent in the forest. Beams of white light shoot from Mary J. Blige's eyes over a field of lightning, purple wolves emerge surrounding Cam'ron, and a possessed vortex of magic and smoke appears and disappears on a mysterious forest stage. Rubin's videos make powerful connections between popular culture and societal norms, thus revealing the way in which beliefs about nature and culture serve to define individuals, groups, and the collective memory.
All together, the works in PEACE KING MOTHER NATURE play with and explore the definition of, relation between, and the history of these two terms - "nature" and "culture" - from a variety of points: gender, race, the miniature, popular culture, technology, video games, architecture, and craft. For more information, including more writing on this show, links and information about all the artists, and a look at the artists in part one of PEACE KING MOTHER NATURE, please visit www.secondgallery.org
PEACE KING MOTHER NATURE Part 2 will be on view from October 28 - November 26, 2006, with an Opening Reception on Saturday October 28th, 8- 10 pm. Opening reception will feature temporary sculptures by Jeremiah Teipen. Gallery hours are Wednesday through Saturday, 12 to 6pm.
Second Gallery The Distillery 516 East 2nd Street South Boston, MA 02127
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