The Antarctic Sublime & Elements of Nature: Water
Special exhibition at the Dayton Art Institute July 16 2016 - October 16 2016.
Event details
* this page may be updated if event is repeated in the future *
The Antarctic Sublime & Elements of Nature: Water
Cool off this summer at your Dayton Art Institute! The summer suite of exhibitions features three installations in different parts of the museum, highlighting the many forms of the classical element water: frozen across the expansive and rocky terrain of the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina; implied in a colony of 450 mechanized penguins who frequently cavort and play in its icy depths; and free-flowing in an over-12-foot-tall digital waterfall.
The Antarctic Sublime
This exhibition features a colony of 450 mechanized penguins by contemporary artist Daniel Rozin. These automated birds interact with visitors in ways that will both surprise and delight. As creatures of the Antarctic terrain, and highly adaptive to life in water, the inclusion of the penguins not only provides another immersive and responsive environment for visitors, but also offers an opportunity to further explore Antarctic regions and their climate shifts, ideas of natural selection, and the randomness of genetic drift.
Elements of Nature: Water
In conjunction with The Antarctic Sublime, The DAI will also present a single, monumental photograph by Berlin-based artist Frank Thiel of the Perito Moreno glacier. Thiel created large-format images to capture the immense scale of the 18-mile-long by three-mile-wide formation, located in the Los Glaciares National Park in Patagonia, Argentina, which is one of the few glaciers in the world that is growing. Thiel’s large-scale photograph recalls the sublime landscapes painted by members of the Hudson River School, which frequently represented the powerful drama and overwhelming scale of nature and human’s small place within that terrain. Similarly, the monumentality of Thiel’s photograph places the viewer in a related context and invites them to question the transient nature of what is around them, while also providing the opportunity to discuss the fragility of man in the face of nature’s awesome might and simultaneously emphasizing man’s hubris and determination.
Complementing the installation is 12-foot video projection of a waterfall by the Japanese interdisciplinary technology group, teamLab, titled Universe of Water Particles (2013). Informed by the tradition of ancient Japanese Art, ukiyo-e woodblock prints, and contemporary forms of anime, the Universe of Water Particles demonstrates teamLab’s keen interest in the transcendental qualities of water and the combination of both two and three-dimensional space in digital form. Exhibited alongside selections of The Dayton Art Institute’s strong collection of Edo period ukiyo-e woodblock prints, visitors will see a source of great influence alongside the morphing beauty of the immersive waterfall and be able to explore the associated pioneering and intellectual concepts of these technologists at work, as well as the mesmerizing innovative capabilities at play.
Links & Tags
Dayton Art Institute
