This page is no longer being updated and remains online for informational and historical purposes only. The information is accurate as of the last page update.
For questions about page contents, contact the Communications Division.
The exhibit “Word, City, Mind: A Universal Resonance,” by Ed Kerns, Eugene H. Clapp II ’36 Professor of Art, and artist Elizabeth Chapman, can be seen in Skillman Library’s Lass Gallery through May 31.
A panel discussion on the exhibit will take place 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 6, in the Gendebien Room of Skillman Library. The discussion will include Kerns; Chapman; Elaine Reynolds, associate professor of biology and chair of neuroscience; Wendy Hill Provost and Rappolt Professor in Neuroscience; and Majorie Hass, Provost and professor of philosophy at Muhlenberg College. A reception will follow the discussion.
Using paint, text, collage, and image, the exhibit focuses on the resonance between neurological, cosmic, and man-made forms. It previously ran from November to December 2007 in the Martin Gallery at Muhlenberg College.
For the exhibit, Kerns and Chapman, a practicing architect and painter who has studied neurology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, brought in Reynolds to use her scientific expertise on some pieces. Three EXCEL Scholars also assisted with the project. Art majors Alaina Lackman ’09 (Philadelphia, Pa.), Rachel Pidcock ’09 (Allentown, Pa.), and Allison Thompson ’08 (Saddle River, N.J.) worked with conceptual development and digital imagery and also served as studio assistants.
“The works focus on the large and small processes, those that exist at both quantum and cosmic scales,” says Kerns. “The exhibit demonstrates both the merging of traditional with digital and the ways in which art and science come from the same root. It also expresses the need for a consilient language in which artists and scientists can find common ground.”
The technique of layering was used for many of the pieces in the exhibit. According to Chapman, this layering is symbolic of the way the brain works.
“Each layer is a metaphor for a neurological process leading to the experience of self and other,” says Chapman. “The collaboration combines our mutual affinity for layered systems as well with our attunement to deep transcending patterns in nature.”
2 Comments
Comments are closed.