Theory.Practice.Exhibitions.
The purpose of the construction of this webpage is to convey both the horde of photographs Courtney and Alina chose from and the transformation of the annex through the portrayal of these images.
To see the transformation that took place through the images, just click the buttons that link to the bottom and the top of the page!
The most technically complex exhibit, the images were hung by fishing wire and hooks. The lines connecting the paintings came from blue tape. Bruce, Alina, Courtney, and a student intern worked to display the images carefully.
We pulled these paintings from a congested storage area and spread them out, discovering shared features: strata, lines, and veins. Miriam Thrall, a close friend of Gest, compares her use of line to architectural forms when describing the relation of her works to their new home in the Gest Center:
“The high windows of both front conference rooms on the first floor look across wide stretches of campus and supplement the strong lines of Margaret Gest’s paintings throughout the rooms.”
Following Thrall’s lead, we here trace various “strong lines” through the paintings and out unto the walls of the Parish Alcove, drawing the viewer both towards and away from the works, thereby connecting the paintings, Margaret Gest, and you.
There are four layers of paintings, starting with a sketch of Gest herself. If you leave the Alcove and journey to the opposite side of the window, you will meet her not through the paintings, but directly – she is a person worth knowing. To what extent does the space between the frames facilitate or inhibit connection? We hope that there is neither too little nor too much space, neither too little nor too much air. Margaret Gest deserves a glance reborn – a breath of fresh air, some oxygenated beats of the heart. And air has a nasty habit of collecting dust.
--Alina Van Ryzin & Courtney Carter
From Dust to Veins
Photographs courtesy of Brad Larrison and John Muse