Sherk And Badt Exhibition To Open Tuesday
"Point, Line, Plane," a collaborative exhibition by sculptor Scott Sherk, chair of Muhlenberg College's art department, and painter Pat Badt, will open Tuesday, December 9, at Lafayette College's Grossman Gallery. The exhibition will run through January 24, 2004.Tuesday, December 9, 2003 00:15 PM
"Point, Line, Plane," a collaborative exhibition by sculptor Scott Sherk, chair of Muhlenberg College's art department, and painter Pat Badt, will open Tuesday, December 9, at Lafayette College's Grossman Gallery. The exhibition will run through January 24, 2004.
"Point, Line, Plane" was inspired by the artists' reading of Wassily Kandinsky's text "On the Spiritual in Art." "We found a certain resonance in Kandinsky's critique of the art of 'materialistic attitude' and his suggesting an art of the spirit," said Sherk and Badt in a statement about the exhibition. "We embrace Kandinsky's critique and hope for something different - an art which doesn't scream at you from the wall, as Dave Hickey says, but rather one that whispers. We have tried to create an art that whispers, whispers about a rendezvous with you in the space between existence and recognition."
The exhibition consists of three elements derived from Kandinsky's elements of a visual syntax:
Point-- At the far end of the gallery is a simple circular hole cut into the floor. A viewer becomes aware of singular drops of water falling from the ceiling above. Each drop forms, falls through the space of the gallery, and passes through the floor into a cavity below. The water drop is accompanied by the percussive sound of its impact as it strikes a drum buried beneath the floor.
Line-- Crossing through the gallery at the threshold of perception are lines of monofilament spun with wool. Linking the world outside the space to the world below, drawing the viewer in, these connect and penetrate. These lines, although straight, suggest a curving plane in space.
Plane-- The viewer is invited to enter one of three aluminum cubes, which have been installed, on wheels in the gallery. Each cube is painted one of the primary colors-red, yellow, blue. Within each cube is a zabuton pillow. The viewer, sitting inside the colored cube, is immersed in a world of primary color. The viewer looks out at the world through a specially shaped window-circle, square, triangle. Painted on the north wall of the gallery are the primary and secondary colors. These colors interact with the colors within the cube giving the viewer an experience of color in all its complexity and subtlety.
Sherk is professor of art at Muhlenberg, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985. He earned his B.A. at Haverford College and his M.F.A. at the University of Pennsylvania. "Point, Line, Plane" is the fifth collaboration between Sherk and Badt, who is professor of art and chair of the art department of Cedar Crest College. Their previous collaborations have included "Hutview" at the Katonah Museum of Art, "Horizonlines" at the Kim Foster Gallery in New York City, and "Range" at Martial Arts in Memphis, Tenn.
