Cranbrook Art Museum - Space is the Place


Space Is the Place November 18, 2006-January 14, 2007 Members’ Opening: November 17, 2006 South, Wainger, Center and North Galleries The theme of space exploration – its infinite potential, as well as its historical successes and failures – is the focus of Space Is the Place. The paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations, and sound and video works created in the last ten years by the more than fifteen artists from around the world -- represents space as both a realm of infinite possibility and a place fraught with problems. Included is a new work from NASA’s first artist-in-residence, Laurie Anderson, along with pieces by Nina Katchadourian, Oleg Kulik, Julian LaVerdiere, Kay Schimert and others. The exhibition Space Is the Place is organized and circulated by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York. The guest curators are Alex Baker and Toby Kamps. Space Is the Place will make its national première at Cranbrook Art Museum.
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The theme of space exploration—its infinite potential, as well as its historical successes and failures—is the focus of the exhibition Space Is the Place, featuring installations, paintings, works on paper, and sound and video works made during the past ten years by an international group of contemporary artists. Cranbrook Art Museum is the first stop on the national tour of this exhibition that explores how global attitudes toward the subject of Space have changed radically between the time the Soviets launched their Sputnik satellite nearly fifty years ago and the explosion of American space shuttles in 1986 and 2003. Despite recent setbacks, travel to outer space remains a powerful catalyst for contemporary artists, inspiring nostalgia, fantasy, and, at a time of great terrestrial conflict, consideration of serious earthly concerns. Space is the Place opens at Cranbrook Art Museum on November 18, 2006 and runs through January 14, 2007. The exhibition is organized and circulated by Independent Curators International (iCI), New York. While these works are united by the primary theme of outer space, the open-ended parameters of the subject also invite consideration of issues relating to the technological, environmental, and sociopolitical forces affecting life on earth. For example, Polish-born artist Aleksandra Mir’s video, First Woman on the Moon, which was performed on a beach in the Netherlands thirty years after the first moonwalk, uses the fantastical context of space exploration to comment on the continuing problem of gender inequality. A related, gently satiric spirit permeates the work of Mexican artist Damián Ortega, whose Aterrizaje en la luna (Voyage to the Moon), named after a French Tin Tin comic, is a galvanized metal shelter that appears to be part imaginary space capsule and part dwelling for the homeless, highlighting both the inequalities that divide and the dreams that unite affluent and developing nations. The title of the exhibition derives from a 1974 movie about an influential jazz fusion band, whose leader, Sun Ra, spoke of making music sublime enough to elevate humanity beyond Earth, transcending reality. Much like the cosmic themes of Sun Ra, Space Is the Place reaches out to realms beyond our planet. Space Is the Place is curated by Alex Baker, curator of contemporary art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, and Toby Kamps, senior curator at the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati, Ohio; it is accompanied by an illustrated publication.
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*Friday, November 17, 6:15 pm, deSalle, Space is the Place* Guest Curator Toby Kamps to Lecture** Toby Kamps, Senior Curator of the Zahah Hadid-designed Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Co-Curator of the exhibition Space Is the Place, has organized solo exhibitions by artists such as Claes Oldenburg, Ellsworth Kelly, Vanessa Beecroft and has written extensively on contemporary art and artists.
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The Exhibition Space Is the Place is organized and circulated by iCI (Independent Curators International), New York. The guest curators are Alex Baker and Toby Kamps. The exhibition, tour, and catalogue are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, with additional support from the iCI Exhibition Partners. Cranbrook Art Museum's 2006-2007 Exhibition Season, including Space Is the Place, is generously sponsored by LaSalle Bank. Space Is the Place is presented at Cranbrook with the support of the Museum Committee of Cranbrook Art Museum including Adele Acheson, Maggie Allesee, John Berry, Jonathan Boos, Deborah Bragman, Maxine Frankel, Ralph Graham, Stanley Grandon, John Henke III, Jonathan Holtzman, Diane Kirkpatrick, David Klein, Til M. Klem, Corrine Lemberg, Wendy MacGaw, Diane VanderBeke Mager, Abigail Murray, James A. Nichols, Michael Poris, Ruth Rattner, Cathy Rosenthal, Jane Schulak, Gilbert B. Silverman, Ronald S. Swanson, Gary L. Wasserman, and Pamela Applebaum Wyett. Cranbrook Art Museum is supported through the memberships and fundraising activities of ArtMembers@Cranbrook; contributors to the Annual Fund of Cranbrook Academy of Art and Art Museum; and the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Cranbrook Art Museum is a non-profit contemporary art museum, and an integral part of Cranbrook Academy of Art, a community of artists-in-residence and graduate-level students of art, design and architecture. Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cranbrook Art Museum are a part of Cranbrook Educational Community, which also includes Cranbrook’s Institute of Science, Schools and other affiliated cultural and educational programs. Cranbrook Art Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums. For information call toll free 1-877-GO-CRANBrook (1-877-462-7262). To become a member of ArtMembers@Cranbrook call 248-645-3032. Museum Hours Wednesday through Sunday, 11am – 5pm Fourth Fridays, 11am – 9pm Closed Mondays and Tuesdays and the following holidays during the exhibition: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Day, New Year’s Eve and Day Cranbrook Art Museum Members: Free! Adults: $6 Full-Time Students with ID and Teens 13 and over: $4 Senior Citizens (65+): $4 Children 12 and under: Free! No credit cards accepted Personal checks welcomed U.S. currency only For more information, please call 1.877.GO.CRANBrook. (1.877.462.7262)