Monday, April 13, 2009

Opening Friday, April 17, 2009

1708 Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition featuring Jeremy Drummond and Rod Northcutt opening this Friday, April 17th at 1708 Gallery. Both artists will give an artist talk at 6:30pm on April 17, 2009 at 1708 Gallery followed by a public reception.

Jeremy Drummond’s 65-Point Plan for Sustainable Living, a collection of 65 aerial images depicting every Canadian Province and US State will be on view. Each image portrays a single subdivision that has been digitally reconstructed into an enclosed geographical space, with no roads leading in or out.

Maryland by Jeremy Drummond

As an installation, these images are displayed to loosely reflect their original geographic and spatial relationship – functioning as a re-mapping of Canada and the USA. As a multiple, these images are printed as an edition of standard postcards.

South Carolina by Jeremy Drummond


Contemporary suburban environments are architecturally designed as spaces one can only experience through the window of a moving vehicle. Physical connections to space are reduced only to points of departure and arrival, often resulting in isolation and ambivalence towards the environment in which one exists. With contemporary web-based technologies, a total collapse in space and time has rendered physical experience obsolete.

Jeremy Drummond received a BFA in Studio Arts from the University of Western Ontario and in 2003, a MFA in Art Media Studies from Syracuse University. His work has been exhibited widely in festivals, galleries and museums throughout North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Since 2001, he has curated close to 50 programs of independent video for festivals, galleries and museums in North America and Europe. He is represented by ADA Gallery and teaches in the Department of Art & Art History at the University of Richmond (Richmond, VA).
http://www.jeremydrummond.com/


Luddite by Rod Northcutt

Rod Northcutt mixes the languages of biology, woodworking, and social theory to create sculptures, drawings, and site-specific installations that explore and illustrate social analogs between humans and the natural world. Rod Northcutt’s work is founded in scientific methodology, biological and cultural symbiosis, and the social history of making. It is evidence of a long-standing interest in the anthropology of systems, be those systems of art, material culture, or the animal human dialogue.

In this body of work, through a series of drawings, Northcutt illustrates the tools and methods (with beaks, teeth, mandibles) of animals, specifically indigenous design/builders (beavers, termites, woodpeckers, etc.) as they “make”. On an additional level, the sculpture and installations cite human social events and situations as prepared scenes. Some of the smaller presentation pieces and tools have been created in the style of commemorative gifts for beaver-centric labor societies and fraternal organizations.


Schools of Architecture and Design detail by Rod Northcutt

Also on hand are tools that appear to be “beaver made” suggesting a historical archive of natural construction science.

Rod Northcutt received his MFA in sculpture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and BFA in painting and drawing/biology from The University of North Texas. He has exhibited nationally and internationally at the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art, Museum of Contemporary Art: Chicago, DePaul University Museum of Art, Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, and many others. He designs furniture and structures under the name of onesixtyfourth design and works collaboratively with green/sustainable design collectives including Material Exchange and Experimental Station.

Accommodations for the artist is provided by Linden Row Inn.

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