ORGANICISM

Nature Functioning Nontraditionally

March 5 – April 20, 2007

Opening Reception: March 8, 2007 5 – 7 p.m.

C-33 Gallery, 33 East Congress, at the southwest corner of Congress and Wabash

 

With the urban scape rapidly expanding up and outward into the natural environment, organic form and material is being overcome. Calls to action for environmental welfare are abundant and often in the name of preserving nature for its functionality as a system. While the natural environment is unquestionably very important and while the decline of its state is, as it should be, a chief concern, it is essential to not forget that nature fills the dual-role of both form and function. 

 

The concept embodied in the work showcased as Organicism is the celebration of all that naturally occurring for the sake of aesthetic and personal experience. Instead of artists making proclamations of distress, each is examining who they are in relation to how they experience organic form and material. Organicism will provide a multi-sensory account of these complex relationships with nature; relationships that have gone beyond the bounds of understanding nature in terms of it existing merely to function.

 

The term organicism comes from a scientific philosophy that suggests that the whole cannot be defined by the sum of its parts; that the system is important above its components. In this context, Organicism manifests the exact opposite. Metaphorically, Organicism: Nature Functioning Nontraditionally is an exploration not of ‘why leaves on a tree?’ or ‘why trees in a forest?’ but is instead that of how within the intricacies of the individual leaf one can experience the  majestic qualities of the entire forest.

 

Stream-ing, an interactive installation about the interdependent relationship of people and the environment, was created by Drew Browning and Annette Barbier, in conjunction with artist and designer Jim Ferolo during a joint residency at the Prairie Center of the Arts and Bradley University in the spring of 2006. Advanced students at Bradley and UIC participated in the creation of the environment, part of which consisted of two elevation grid bench/sculptures created from depth data from the Chicago and Illinois rivers. 

 

The artists would like to thank participants in the project, particularly:  Joe and Michele Richey (Tri City Machine Shop and Prairie Center of the Arts, Peoria, IL), Allan Spale, Devin O'Neal, Mitchell Anderson, Abigail Peters, Brian McMurray.