Fantasy meets technology in new Galleries exhibit
|
The exhibit, "Nature Rehearsed: Works by Richard J. Krueger and Ronald Leax," will be shown in the Stewart Center Gallery through Dec. 3.
Richard Krueger and Ronald Leax, both art faculty members at Washington University in St. Louis, incorporate images, processes and even the materials of science into art constructions that mimic biological sciences, the realms of fantasy and laboratories.
Krueger suggests that the sciences of artifice, including reality simulation and gene manipulation, have revived reality as theater, said Craig Martin, director of Purdue Galleries.
"He imagines the possibilities opened by modern science having been rehearsed and predicted long ago by ancient mythology," Martin said. "Similar to the mythological mermaid, our techno-magically invented versions of the beast — including Dolly the sheep, AIBO the robotic dog and the talking animals of television and film — represent our desire to reconstitute the boundaries of the natural world. His photographic constructions illustrate a world of fantastic invention and extrapolation upon the natural world."
Martin said Leax creates fantasy laboratories from beakers, test tubes, glass shelving, rubber tubing and colored liquids. In these large-scale sculptural constructions and in his drawings, he illustrates transubstantiation, or the miraculous transformation of one substance into another: dross into gold in alchemy, bread and water into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The investigations of the laboratory (material), the interpretations of the art studio (social) and the coherence sought in the temple (metaphysical) are at the core of his works and philosophies.
At 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 11, Krueger will present a lecture on his work in Stewart Center, Room 310. A reception will follow the lecture in Stewart Center Gallery.
The Stewart Center Gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday and from 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. For class or group visits, contact Mary Ann Anderson at (765) 496-7899. All Purdue Galleries exhibitions and events are free and open to the public.
Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu
Source: Craig Martin, (765) 494-3061, cdmartin@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
PHOTO CAPTION:
Richard J. Krueger's "Beyond Desire," a digital-photo construction from 2005, is part of the "Nature Rehearsed: Works by Richard J. Krueger and Ronald Leax" exhibit on display from Oct. 23 to Dec. 3 in the Stewart Center Gallery. (Image courtesy of the artist)
A publication-quality photo is available at http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/+2006/galleries-desire.jpg
To the News Service home page