New media exhibit opens on campus
Kelsey Foster
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New media artist Erwin Redl opened his a new exhibit Friday night at Emerson's Huret and Spector Gallery. The exhibit, titled "Fade: A Light Installation," was curated by Joseph Ketner, the recently appointed Foster Chair in Contemporary Art Theory and Practice and Curator-in-Residence for the Visual & Media Arts Department.
Redl, who came to the United States from Austria in 1993, specializes in new media and digital art.
According to Redl, his art is an attempt to translate the digital world into a human experience using relatively low technology. His website says, "my work reflects upon the condition of art making after the 'digital experience.' The formal and structural approach to various media I employ, such as installation, drawings, CD ROM, Internet and sound, engages in binary logic, because I assemble the material according to a narrow set of self-imposed rules which often incorporate complex algorithms, controlled randomness and other methods inspired by computer code."
Redl said he has been working with light fixtures as a medium for about eleven years. He said that he came to Emerson hoping to "do something significant."
According to the biography on his website, Redl worked for several years in New York City. He came to New York on a Fulbright Stipend to the MFA studies at the School of Visual Arts. In 2002 was awarded the State of Lower Austria Media Art Award in St. Polten, Austria. Redl studied at Music
Academy in his native Vienna, Austria and continued to study at the school of Visual Arts in New York City.
Redl and Ketner worked together on an installation at the Milwaukee Art Museum last year. "The main reason that I chose Redl for my first exhibition at the Huret and Spector Gallery is because I wanted to completely change people's expectations of the space with a spectacular installation. Erwin has done that," Ketner said.
The exhibit, located on the sixth floor of the Tufte building at 10 Boylston Place attracted many members of Emerson's student body, faculty, and staff on opening night.
Paul Mooer, a senior in film production said the exhibit was a step in the right direction for the Visual Media Arts program. "I think the first thing to come to mind is that this exhibit is mind blowing. The VMA department is finally trying to make an effort to be artistic. This is one of the coolest things the department has done in awhile," Mooer said.
Ketner said he plans to continue scheduling similar exhibits. "One exhibition can attract the attention of the Emerson community, but I see Erwin's show as just the beginning in a series of exhibitions that I expect will establish a program of experimental contemporary art that, I hope, will make a contribution to the cultural landscape of Emerson and the Boston Common neighborhood," Ketner said. He said future exhibits will include a student gallery and an installation by Argentinean artist Santiago Cucullu.
"Fade: A Light Installation" will be open 11:30-3:30 Monday through Friday and other times by appointment.