On view through March 14, 2015, “Weather Report” in the Ruth Brennan Gallery at the Dahl Arts Center in Rapid City, South Dakota is an exhibition of work by Andrzej Maciejewski which captures the dramatic changes in weather conditions over a year’s time in the small village of Moscow, Ontario, Canada. Thirty-six photos make up the show, whereas he used his own hand-made camera obscura, which he positioned near his house along Long Swamp Road.
Shooting a single view during a variety of times, seasons and weather conditions allowed him to highlight just how elusive our memory of place can be. This series creates side-by-side comparisons of place, turning time into space. The artist said, “In the summer you only have a vague memory of how your garden looked in the winter, covered with snow. Even in the evening, it is difficult to recall how the landscape looked in the entirely different light of morning.”
The camera obscura is an ancient prototype of today’s modern camera, consists of a box with a small hole on one side through which light passes, reproducing the scene outside against the inner wall. Maciejewski’s version is a walk-in structure, 6’ x 6’ x 10’, which allows him to photograph in virtually all kinds of weather.
Maciejewski has been photographing for 29years and currently teaches at the Haliburton School of Arts.
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Opening Friday, December 23, 2014 and on view through Saturday, March 7, 2015 in the Inez & Milton Shaver Gallery, “Ukiyo-e: Pictures of a Floating World” is an exhibit of 19th Century Japanese woodblock prints, which features 18 original prints by various Japanese artists.
Ukiyo-e prints were intended as art for the lower classes and they represent an authentic view of Japanese life before industrialization. Charles Lang Freer, a wealthy Detroit businessman and avid art collector, traveled to Asia where he acquired these prints. Eventually Freer donated a selection of his large collection to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. He also designed and built his own small exquisite art museum, Free Gallery of Art, in Washington, D.C. It is one of the preeminent museums of Asian art in the United States.
In addition to donating a selection of works to institutions, in 1919 Freer gifted 46 Japanese woodblock prints to his Art Curator, Stephen Warring. Warring is the grandfather of local art historian and professor Richard Hicks who has loaned these 18 prints for display.
On Thursday, February 19 at 5:30 pm, Hicks will give a talk about how he came to own these prints, a history of the tradition of Japanese woodblock prints and a discussion of the process and subject matter common in this style of artwork.
For more information, see: www.thedahl.org.
