Jo Yarrington: Ocular Visions
January 31 to June 6, 2010
New Aldrich Blog! Ocular Visions
New York artist Jo Yarrington will utilize cutting edge ophthalmologic technology to transform The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum’s Leir Atrium into a gigantic human eye for her exhibition Ocular Visions which opens on January 31, 2010.
Using floor-to-ceiling red transparencies—a color which represents good medical health—created by magnifying a tiny photograph of the inside of her eye, Yarrington will create an ethereal installation which is activated by changing light.
As visitors enter the physical space, they will also gain access to her mind’s eye—or as Yarrington puts it, “the place from where we create.”
The structure of the project works nicely as a metaphor for vision and interpretation, just as the human eye serves as an intermediary between the exterior and the interior for processing experiences. The eye detects light and sends messages to the brain, as the Museum’s windows admit light to the building and illuminate the installation. Yarrington will also utilize the Museum’s only permanent fixture, the camera obscura, for the site specific project to further explore how we see.
Yarrington says, “I’ve always been interested in liminal places, areas of the mind or reality that blur definition, that exist somewhere in between. I work with various transparent photographs that function as both a physical framework and symbolic membrane. Light enters through the human eye as it does through the museum’s windows to decipher form. The perpetual shifting of image and light alters the relationship between building and viewer. Transformation on many levels seems a possibility as the interior and exterior fold into one another, and the boundary between the two begins to dissolve.”
Museum director Harry Philbrick comments, “It seems only fitting that an optical exhibition will utilize the facility in a way that could only happen at The Aldrich. The Museum’s tag line, look. look again., which encourages people to look carefully during their visits, seems even more appropriate in the context of this exhibition.”
The Aldrich will celebrate the opening of Jo Yarrington: Ocular Visions on Sunday, January 31, 2010, from 3 to 5 pm. FREE on-site parking is available, as is continuous round-trip transportation from the Metro North Katonah Train Station to the Museum.
The Aldrich is supported, in part, by the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Institute for Museum and Library Services. Special thanks to Fairfield University, Jose Vargas, exhibit design and fine art director at Duggal Visual Solutions, and Topcon America Corporation. The official media sponsors of exhibition openings are Ridgefield Magazine and WSHU Public Radio.
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Jo Yarrington: Ocular Visions
Jo Yarrington, Untitled, 2009
Courtesy of the artist
Jo Yarrington: Ocular Visions
Jo Yarrington, Self portrait: Optic nerve bottom view 3d spin with markers, 2008
Courtesy of the artist
Jo Yarrington: Ocular Visions
Jo Yarrington, Project rendering for the exhibition Ocular Visions at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield, CT), 2009
Courtesy of the artist
The Artist: Jo Yarrington’s drawing, photographs, and architecturally-based installations have been shown in exhibitions at the Museum of Glass, WA; Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, MA; Artists Space, NY; and William Benton Museum of Art, CT. International exhibitions have included Galeria Sala Uno, Rome; Centro de las Artes de Guanajuato, Salamanca, Mexico; Christuskirche, Cologne; and Glasgow School of Art, Scotland. She is a recipient of fellowships from the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, SIMS/ Iceland, the American Scandinavian Foundation, the Brandywine Institute, the Pennsylvania Council for the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism. In 2001, she represented the United States at the Sharjah Biennial, United Arab Emirates. Yarrington is a Professor of Studio Art in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at Fairfield University in Fairfield, CT. She lives and works in New York City and Norwalk, CT.
Jo Yarrington, Project rendering for the exhibition Ocular Visions at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum (Ridgefield, CT), 2009
Courtesy of the artist
