The world is changing. As such, we put forth constant effort to synthesize the digital and organic in day-to-day life, seeking meaning, seeking connection, seeking answers. The means by which we search can take many forms. In spirituality, a prayer; on a date, a question; on the web, a google search; on a computer, CMD + F. This exhibition presents three new media artists who examine the means by which we seek to know more about ourselves, what is here, and what is beyond.
Rachel Schmidt’s “Tension” provides the viewer with an exercise in perception, compelled to use our senses of sight and sound to navigate an experience meant to portray the artist’s own during a residency at the Taipei Artist Village in Taipei, Taiwan. The viewer encounters a video depicting various environments from Schmidt’s time in Taipei scored with a juxtaposition of natural and industrial sounds, as a field of ice-like illuminated floor structures call attention to the physicality of the space. Tommy Bobo shifts his focus from video to light-play, composing nuanced wall-scapes of projected light and materials that disrupt and refract it. The light becomes sculptural, compelling the viewer to reexamine existing notions of the medium. James Huckenpahler merges classic photographic portraiture from the Brady-Handy collection of American Civil War era society portraits with a cache of images stored on his own computer. The result is an eerie pop-futurist fusion of human portraits and tech-distortion.
Tommy Bobo’s art practice is deeply interested in the physicality of light and sound. He received his BFA in Expanded Media Art from the University of Kansas in 2006 and his MFA in Studio Art from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2014. His work has shown in Baltimore, MD and Washington, DC and has been covered in the Washington City Paper and the Washington Post.
James Huckenpahler is an artist, educator, curator and lifelong Washingtonian. He has taught extensively at The Corcoran School of Art and at George Washington University. He is a member of FURTHERMORE, a research and development lab for visual culture and for sustainable art communities, is a fellow of Provisions Research Library and currently serves on the advisory board of Transformer. Huckenpahler received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Corcoran College of Art + Design in 1990.
Rachel Schmidt is an installation artist based in the Washington, DC region. She uses time-based media and installation to explore themes related to urbanization and its impact on ecosystems. Rachel received her MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore before moving to Warsaw, Poland for a year of artistic research. She has been an artist in residence at the Arlington Arts Center, Taipei Artist Village, Vermont Studio Center, and the Taller Portobelo Norte in Panama. She has exhibited throughout the US and Internationally, and has been reviewed in Sculpture Magazine, Washington Post, and numerous other print and online publications.