Gretchen Skogerson's Lecture

The video footage of Gretchen Skogeron's lecture is now up on our YouTube channel. All five parts are below for your viewing pleasure.
In his introduction, Youngsuk Suh emphasized the importance of "emptiness" to Skogerson's work, particularly her more recent projects documenting industrial landscapes at night. Then Skogerson took over, starting her lecture with an overview of her earlier work, beginning with her student days. Her first video pieces centered on the body and had some roots in feminism, which Skogerson attributed somewhat to the masculine and tech-based environment she was immersed in as part of the small electronic arts department at a large engineering school.
She then described her elaborate thesis installation, which she said made her realize she wanted her work to be simpler. She also spoke about a piece that stemmed from a personal ad she left in the Village Voice and the resulting messages on her answering machine.
Another intriguing piece was a collaboration called "Mirror, Mirror" consisting of a mirror that would say "psst!" to passers-by and then, when they leaned in close, it would tell them a secret. The "secrets" were also gleaned from a solicitation in the Village Voice.
This brought us to DRIVE-THRU, which came from Skogerson's "being in love with" the nighttime devastated industrialism in Miami. The piece was selected for the Whitney Biennial. For the Whitney's satellite exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory, Skogerson worked with an industrial sign company to recreate five of the signs from her video. Skogerson showed a striking image of the Armory with the signs installed that had been printed in the New York Times.
Next Skogerson gave an overview of her residency at Pittsburgh's Mattress Factory and other recent projects, all of which have had something of a focus on light as a material for art-making. Skogerson pointed out that light's potential as a material is easy to ignore because it is so ubiquitous in our lives, but that it can nonetheless be a powerful tool.
The lecture concluded with a viewing of Skogerson's latest work, Night Parking, another piece devoted to industrial spaces at night, and a thoughtful question-and-answer session.
For all the details and a look at some of the pieces Skogerson discussed, watch the lecture in full below:

Final Week of Light Matters

Roses are red.

Violets are blue.

Christina is here,

and Gretchen is too!

Okay, so maybe we are not very good poets but we do know good art! Come visit us during the last weekend of Light Matters, which ends Sunday, February 13, and start your Valentine’s Day early. What better to start kindling all the warmness of Valentine’s than to transport to Paris or any of the other fabulous cities on display in Christina Seely's cityscapes in her Lux series photographs? Don’t have a Valentine’s? That’s okay! Bring a friend instead and discuss the “accidental works of art” captured in Gretchen Skogerson’s work titled, Drive Thru,...or maybe you should just stop by for the love of art! 

Hope to see you at CCAS this weekend and be careful of Cupid’s arrows!

Behind the Curtain

"Minimalism in the mundane, elegance in the shattered, and light in the dark."

-Nathan Lee via the Whitney Museum of American Art

If you've come into the gallery lately, you might have wondered: "What's behind the black curtain?" or "Where are those strange noises coming from?" The answer to both is Gretchen Skogerson's video piece DRIVE THRU. Described by the artist as "a landscape of incomplete signs," the piece depicts storm-ravaged fluorescent signage in Miami in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan.
Betraying the striking similarities between this piece's underlying issues and those of Christina Seely's Lux, also currently on display at CCAS, Chris Stults of the Wexner Center for the Arts writes of DRIVE THRU, "What chance does light have against the darkness? The history of illumination is a story of miracles conjured to stave off the devouring night. As if at war with darkness, the modern metropolis has conquered the night and obliterated the sky." Yet the remnants of signs and streaks of fluorescent lighting in Skogerson's piece do not "obliterate" the black night surrounding them, but rather "engage in a dialogue" with the darkness.
Some of Skogerson's shots in the roughly twenty minute video are abstract light compositions--drawing comparisons to Dan Flavin--and some are more representational, incorporating passing cars and shadowy human figures. They all, however, point subtly to devastation, whether that of Miami post-Ivan or that of the earth via consumerism and energy usage. Writes Stults, "their form has become their content," and indeed, these sad, empty signs end up carrying deep meaning thanks to Skogerson's framing and her mix of ambient and recorded noises in the soundtrack. They also, surprisingly enough, become objects of beauty--"accidental works of art" barely noticed along the side of the road.
But Gretchen Skogerson noticed them, and now we invite you to notice them too. Come and see some or all of DRIVE THRU at CCAS, and then come hear Skogerson's lecture on February 10th at 7pm to learn more about this enigmatic piece.

Light Matters Opening

Light Matters 

A Two-Person Exhibition of Photography and Video by Christina Seely and Gretchen Skogerson

Opening at CCAS this week

Christina Seely

Both artists take the artificial light of the nighttime urban environment as a primary inspiration for their projects. Christina Seely's LUX, a large-scale photo series, features nighttime photographs of cities in North America, Western Europe, and Japan. Her beautiful and haunting representations of these cities brings us an awareness that this illumination comes at a high cost to our environment and urges us to reconsider the way of living that contemporary society has created. Gretchen Skogerson's Drive Thru is a single channel high-definition video that looks at the impact of natural disaster on the man-made environment. Drive Thru presents nighttime views of shattered illuminated commercial signage from the aftermath of 2004's Hurricane Ivan in Miami.

Come and see us!

Second Saturday Opening Reception
January 8/ 6 - 9 pm

Christina Seely Lecture
January 13 / 7 pm*

Gretchen Skogerson Lecture
February 10 / 7 pm*

Second Saturday Closing Reception
February 12 / 6 - 9 pm

* Free to current CCAS members and students/ general admission $5.