On July 20th, we kicked off the ABAIR project at Arts Benicia, welcoming artists
John Ruszel and
Alex Potts
to create site specific installations in the gallery. The artists have 4
weeks to work out their ideas in the space, a substantial length of
time that is rather unusual.
The contemporary art form of site specific
installation gives artists the opportunity to seize the totality of a
given space. Just as painters use color, line, and shapes to create art
on a canvas, installation artists create art within the space of a
gallery. In this way, they create an environment in which the visitor
not just views art, but is immersed in it.
Both Ruszel and Potts have created works of this nature in the past.
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| John Ruszel, Ring, 2010 |
A recent graduate from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Ruszel
uses materials such as muslin, string, and wood to create tension
sculptures. Ruszel states that “with this installation, I plan to
expand my explorations of physical forces such as gravity and tension to
include the more subtle and subjective relationships between separate
structures – the ways that components need not touch to interact, and
the ways that parts can form a whole. hopefully, these structures will
press people to move beyond the regular viewer/artwork mindset and
experience the work more intimately.”
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| Alex Potts, Resonance, 2008 |
Potts, who holds a Master of Fine Arts
(MFA) Degree from San Francisco State University, is a sound sculptor
who works with gourds. He places speakers in each of the dozens of
gourds hanging in his installations and uses them to amplify ambient
sound. The gourds are arranged in the space to create sweeping shapes
that transform it visually as well as sonically.
