Sculptfest 2018, Interdependence
Amy Königbauer, The Strand (Lake Champlain, Burlington, VT), 2016, performance sculpture, fabric and two performing bodies. Photo: Amy Königbauer. Courtesy of the artist.
SculptFest is the jewel in the crown of The Carving Studio & Sculpture Center exhibition schedule. Curated by Alisa Dworsky, this year’s exhibit, Interdependence, speaks to the complex relationships in our global society. Thought-provoking installations by 10 local, national and international artists respond to the site comprised of 200 acres of marble yards, 12 quarries and 19th-century industrial steel artifacts.
In the Coping Shop gallery, a photographic installation by Jessica Leete features a pyramid of powdered calcium carbonate (white marble) at its center. Nearby, Indigo Conat-Naar’s video projection explores the interrelationships between the four interns who were strangers to each other before the summer. And Sam Talbot-Kelly’s The Social Climber—a tower of handmade stuffed animals ranging in size from 10 inches to 4 feet—speaks to the essentially interdependent relationship between humans and animals.
In the marble yards, Sayward Schoonmaker’s WE | ME 30 banner floats between two stanchions of the rusted steel bridge crane. The word WE stitched at one end of the banner transforms with a single flip to the word ME stitched on the opposite end. Lynn Sullinvan’s series of abstracted cutouts in Tyvek based on monuments, bases and pedestals sail in space in contrast to the marble blocks beneath. Nathaniel Leib’s Pod, next to an adjacent quarry and rooted on terra firma, invites entry.
Amy Königbauer’s Expanded Strand performance at the opening night involves two individuals in a symbiotic relationship, supporting each other’s weight at each end of a wide tube of fabric. As they lean and stretch, their interdependence is crystal clear. A fabric piece provided by the artist invites visitors to experiment on their own.
A sound installation by composer Charles Hickey reverberates throughout the “echo” quarry. His Irish immigrant ancestors moved to West Rutland in 1850. Hickey identified the resonant frequencies at the quarry opening, and has integrated music from St. Bridget’s Church, which overlooks the quarries.
Experiencing Hickey’s work is indeed a historic moment—where familial, cultural, geologic and work histories come together in an exceptional way—made possible only in this post-industrial nexus for experimental works of art.