November 12, 2009
Erika Blumenfeld, an internationally exhibiting artist and Guggenheim Fellow, will discuss “Defining Trajectories: From Recording Light to Documenting Antarctica” as part of the Auerbach Lecture Series of the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford. This event is free and open to the public. In January of 2009, Blumenfeld went to Antarctica for a month as the artist-in-residence of ITASC (Interpolar Transnational Art Science Constellation) and SANAP (South African National Antarctic Program).
ITASC is an official project of the International Polar Year and is supported in Antarctica by the South African National Antarctic Program. ITASC is a network of individuals and organizations working collaboratively in the fields of art, engineering, and science on the interdisciplinary development and deployment of renewable energy, waste recycling systems, and sustainable architecture to enable the production and distribution of open-format, open-source remote field research in Antarctica and the Arctic.
Her talk will take place on Thursday, Nov. 12, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. in Wilde Auditorium, in the Harry Jack Gray Center, on the University of Hartford campus, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford.
Blumenfeld’s work is informed by her longstanding interest in physics, light, and the natural world. From that vantage point, the artist sets forth in exploring and documenting the subtle shifts in atmospheric, astronomic and environmental phenomena. Developing new photographic processes and techniques to accomplish her intent, Blumenfeld methodically documents the subtle incremental changes that light makes over time. Her photo-based works and video installations yield an account of light’s trace.
Blumenfeld has been awarded rare opportunities to create her work in non-traditional studio environments. In 2001, she worked on a Bioluminescence project with Latz Laboratory at the Scripps Institute for Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif. In 2004, the artist worked on a video piece documenting a full lunar cycle at the McDonald Observatory in Ft. Davis, Texas.
Blumenfeld’s installations have been exhibited widely in galleries, museums and nonprofits in the US and abroad, including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo; Ballroom in Marfa, Texas; Willem de Kooning Academie, Rotterdam, Netherlands; Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe; Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art (CCNOA) in Brussels, Belgium; DiverseWorks Art Space in Houston; and the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), in Portland, Oregon.
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