October 11- December 1, 2007
For her first one-person show, recent University of Washington MFA graduate, Susie J. Lee will activate all five exhibition spaces of Lawrimore Project with two ambitious installations, three new sculptural video works, a new narrative video, and three select works from the artist's short but storied 1-year career.
Refrain - The tendency of a system to oscillate back and forth is described as its resonant frequency. Our capacity to revisit the past and return to the present has its own resonant frequency; verbally, we try to describe this movement in which "thoughts flood back" or "feelings come back in waves." Leaving no physical trace of their existence, memories can fill the entire space of one's mind before receding to where they came from. In this sense nothing has a way of filling everything.
This exhibition explores the sinusoidal path of remembering: from sudden triggers to fragments of recollections to its attenuation and return to the present, and how these memories occupy a psychoemotional space. Ephemeral and transparent materials, such as water, clear resin, light, and sound carve out volume with minimal suggestion of mass. Utilizing melodies with refrains, repeating patterns, and multiple layers of sound and light, the pieces are composed with arcs that crescendo/decrescendo.
At a formal sculptural level, Lee addresses the idea that using video projections is ultimately about using light. As time-based compositions, the pieces fall somewhere between performance and static works, but the continuous loop function more as a consequence of the medium than as part of the content. In exploring a resonant frequency of memory and the volume of absence, both the ephemeral qualities of light and the loop are integrated into the conceptual parameters of these works.
Main Space
Rain Shower (Sonagi)
Premise: How do you fill a space with rain without filling a space with rain? This piece locates itself within a transitional space of the gallery—one comes from the outside to the inside and from one end of the gallery to the other. As one travels through the space, the sound of "thunder" comes from no particular direction and an array of individual lights slowly hits the floor. As the sound decays to whispers and raindrops, the droplets of light increase in speed, effectively filling the space with only light and sound. Like a storm, there is an approach, a crescendo, and a slow fading away.
White Cube
Frequency Map
The Premise: An empty room attempts to communicate. At first glance the White Cube appears to be between installations. The room is *empty* but the lights are on. The presence of someone walking into the space activates this piece. An audio program of knocks, pipes, and whistles emanates from behind three walls that were specially constructed to perfectly 'mimic' the White Cube. As the sounds move from one side of the room to another, a system of non-verbal language emerges, conveying the sense of presence and response. Marking the intervals between each "conversation" is the sound of wind chimes indicating the existence of something we assume to physically be there but can only hear and feel.
Black Box
Wachet auf Ruft uns die Stimme
Light, image, and water are key elements in this piece, in which the image of oil droplets travel upwards through the water. Water reveals light, like dust in air and the image is captured above. At the end of the projection, the oil droplets swirl away and disappear. The melody, played by the artist, is Bach’s “Wachet…” which translates to “wake up, the voice calls to us,” gently reminding us to prepare for endings which we know will come.
Hallway and Back Galleries
In the hallway will be Noli me Tangere, a single-channel video that is back-projected through a domed form; and Rings of Saint Genevieve, a cylindrical form will with water with an image projected onto it. In the back gallery space will be Caesura, Conjugal, Four Quartets. Also on view will be Fugue State a piece whose premise is a romance represented by hands.
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