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Artlandish: Weekend Arts Calendar
Rice Gallery Opening Exhibit: Kirsten Hassenfeld's, Dans la Lune
Among the many reasons we are happy that our quaint abode sits blocks from Hermann Park and Rice University, we add to that list our proximiity to the always excellently exhibited Rice Gallery.
When we first heard about this installation, we knew we had to see it to believe it. Rice Gallery's current exhibit, Kirsten Hassenfeld's, Dans la Lune, utilizes the most ordinary of materials, paper, to create ornate, obsessively detailed objects that reference luxury goods, classical architecture, and decorative arts.
Described by Hassenfeld as “dreams on the edge of vanishing,” her ethereal sculptures are carefully lit to evoke the diaphanous surfaces of precious gems and glass objects. Her installation at Rice Gallery, Dans la Lune, consists of the largest objects Hassenfeld has ever created. Structures six to eight feet in diameter, resembling gigantic droplets or the onion domes of Russian architecture, are draped with clusters and strands of faceted, gem-like forms. Lit from within, they transform the gallery into a dim, cavernous treasure trove.
Initially inspired by the idea of pawnshops and casinos as places of longing for money and coveted objects, Hassenfeld explores her own fantasies of plenty and abundance. She scours auction catalogues and books on decoration, indulging in her attraction to the beauty of ornament, which she feels adds a “human quality” to whatever object or building it adorns. Hassenfeld begins a sculpture by creating patterns on a computer, precisely replicating the angular geometry of various cuts of gems and crystalline formations. She then hand-cuts pieces of paper and uses traditional techniques of paper folding, rolling, and coiling to assemble the tens of thousands of tiny, fragile decorative components that comprise each work. Each work is constructed using a variety of papers and vellums of different opacities and requires an elaborately engineered armature made of lightweight, yet supportive materials. Her installation at Rice Gallery will be her most technically ambitious work yet, because as Hassenfeld puts it, “With paper, the minute is easy; the gigantic is extremely difficult.”
OPENING CELEBRATION
Thursday, 27 September 2007
5:00 – 7:30 pm
Kirsten Hassenfeld will speak at 6:00 pm.
GALLERY TALK AND LUNCHEON
Friday, 28 September at noon
Gallery talk by artist Kirsten Hassenfeld
A complimentary light lunch will be provided.
Gallery admission and all events are free and open to the public.
About The Artist
Kirsten Hassenfeld was born in Albany, New York. She received a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1994 and an MFA from The University of Arizona, Tucson in 1998. Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions throughout New York, including Light x Eight: The Hanukkah Project (2006), The Jewish Museum; Greater New York (2005), MoMA/P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, and Open House: Working in Brooklyn (2004), The Brooklyn Museum of Art. She has been an artist-in-residence in New York at Dieu Donné Papermill (2005), The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation (2004), and Smack Mellon Artist Studio Program (2003). In 2006, Hassenfeld was awarded a grant from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
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