91B0FBB4-04A9-D5D7-16F0F3976AA697ED
C9A22247-E776-B892-2D807E7555171534

The Emerson Gallery announces the opening of a new exhibition, Mary Lucier, Selected Works 1975 - 2000, which will be on view through March 15. It is free and open to the public.

Known for large-scale environmental video installations, Mary Lucier has also created a substantial body of single-channel video works previously shown in video programs in museums, alternative spaces and on television.  This exhibition at the Emerson Gallery will provide the occasion for a broad survey of these works to be shown for the first time.  It has also allowed for the works to be remastered from their original tape formats into a digital format, thus contributing to their preservation and availability to a wider audience.

Eleven single-channel video works have been organized chronologically into three one-hour programs.  The first program includes black and white works from the 1970s in which Lucier examines interactions of light, sound, stillness and movement determined, to a degree, by the current technologies of video cameras, tapes and monitors.  The second program includes works from the 1980s, which offer a series of visual narratives about place, time, nature and culture.  These works express themselves through a layered palette of remarkable images, luscious color and vivid sound.  The last program takes us through the past decade of Lucier's work and is the most diverse of the three.  The recent works expand upon and clarify certain aspects of the earlier works while decisively breaking new ground.

The final work in the program is the only one specifically made for large-scale wall projection, but the entire series will be exhibited here, also for the first time, as projected works.  Aspects of the Fossil Record, or From Here On, Dance, 1996, is a sculptural, three-channel, three-monitor work; Asylum, 1986/1991, is a complex environment.  As part of the installation, Asylum's video appears on a monitor hoisted on the arms of a forklift, accompanied by a massive garden ornament and the interior of a rustic shed.  The video is also included in the single-channel program; the juxtaposition gives rise to consideration of a certain malleability inherent to the medium of video.  Retrospective surveys by their very nature allow us to trace the progress of an artist's work, to find at the outset harbingers of what is to come and to recognize at the end the most defining characteristics of an individual oeuvre.  This exhibition, and the accompanying catalogue essay by Deirdre Boyle, will make an important contribution to the understanding of Mary Lucier's work.

The Emerson Gallery is located on the Hamilton College campus, in Christian Johnson Hall, directly behind the college chapel. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 1 to 5 p.m., during scheduled exhibitions when school is in session.  For further information, including information on parking and wheelchair accessibility, please contact Emerson Gallery at 315-859-4396.  Admission to the exhibition, lecture, and reception is free, and the public is cordially invited to attend.

Help us provide an accessible education, offer innovative resources and programs, and foster intellectual exploration.

Site Search