[BKARTS] Columbia Book & Paper MFA Thesis Exhibition

[bdrendel <bdrendel@xxxxxxxxx>]

³THIS IS NOT A BOOK²  MFA EXHIBITION

Columbia College Chicago¹s Interdisciplinary Book & Paper Arts Thesis
Exhibition
April 28-May 19, 2006
 
 
            Chicago, IL, April 2006 ­  Without a doubt, the Center for Book
& Paper Arts has produced some of the finest thesis and professional
exhibitions that Columbia College has to offer.  We are proud to present
the 2006 MFA graduates from the Interdisciplinary Arts program. The MFA Book
& Paper Thesis show is noted for its high level of craft, concept and
overall artistry.  The definition of what a book is and does is stretched to
its furthest extremes. A fourteen-foot tower of handmade paper bricks, a
celestial dome maps the stories of the night sky and a series of embroidered
topologies that document the American experience are all part of this
beautiful and, oftentimes, moving aesthetic cavalcade of artists books.
 

WHERE:     Columbia College Center for Book & Paper Arts
                1104 S. Wabash Avenue, 2nd floor  Chicago, IL
 
WHEN:      April 28 ­ May 19, 2006
                Opening Reception Friday, April 28, from 5 to 8 pm
                Gallery Hours:  Mon ­ Sat. 10 ­ 6pm
                FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

MORE INFO: Contact: 312.344.6630 or book&paper@xxxxxxxxx
<http://www.bookandpaper.org/>
 
 
Maria C. H. Burke creates an intimate installation of book objects that
reference the human body and apparel as a way of examining the relationship
between the body and the book. Book forms will include a corset codex, a
shrug scroll, an accordion ruff, as well as stocking and glove books.
Viewers are invited to share in a love of books as part of a sensual
experience exploring what we mean by "pleasure reading" and "fetishizing the
book". 

Aaron Kohl, paper and found material artist, presents an installation work
that takes a unique look at the representation and extension of the body. An
inquiry into creative investigation, aesthetic responsibility, and
relationships between inside and outside is explored through a depiction of
process and results.

Aimee Lee¹s Hunk & Dora is a performance and installation of over one
thousand handmade paper bricks built into a fourteen-foot tower. Lee sits
inside the tower and gives away spontaneous comics to those who dare to
enter. Audience members are encouraged to share their own comments and
comics by tucking their responses into the backs of the hollow bricks. This
self-portrait mimics the protective walls that we build inside of ourselves
by erecting a fragile, translucent, completely destructible barrier between
the self and others.
 
Elisabeth Long¹s Mapping the Universe of the Imagination explores the mind¹s
ability to project its own internal realities onto the surrounding physical
world. Long¹s large, indigo-dyed paper celestial dome, big enough to walk
into, recreates the familiar night sky and re-connect the dots to create
unfamiliar constellations that tell their stories by opening up like books
which the viewer can read.  An accompanying letterpress printed broadside,
maps this night sky into the sections of the brain which have imagined it.
 
Sara Loosen Otto, printmaker, bookbinder and installation artist, explores
the universality of memory while utilizing the traditional format of the
landscape and environment to illustrate this repository of memory. The print
installation, exceeding 150 square feet, commands presence by encompassing
the viewer in the environment.
 
Mardy Sears's Maggie¹s Magnificent Scientific Menagerie
 ³Come see the goat that spins a spider web from her teat!²
Sears¹s mock exhibit is a modern day freak show looking at the role of
animals in scientific experimentation, focusing on transgenics and
xenotransplantation. Her large woodcut prints evoke the early 19th century
circus poster and billboard.

Ami Trosley's hand-embroidered maps explore the role of place in the
formation of identity through personal narrative, the language of embroidery
and the conventions of historical mapmaking.  In this work, Trosley tells a
story in map form - a story firmly rooted in American soil.  It is a story
about landscape, longing and loss as much as it is a reverent documentation
of one woman's America.

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           The Guild of Book Workers' Centennial Celebration:
              October 12-14, 2006, New York City, New York.
       <http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byorg/gbw/centennial.shtml>
                                    
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