Material Histories: Cultures of Resistance

October 25, 2017

Material Histories: Cultures of Resistance
September 29–October 22, 2017
Opening Reception: September 29, 5–9 p.m.
Majestic Galleries • Nelsonville, Ohio
Exhibition Hours: Friday 1–6 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday, 11–6 p.m.

The exhibition Material Histories: Cultures of Resistance, curated by Alex Hibbitt, brings together contemporary artworks that range from the monumental to the performative. Highlighting concerns such as human rights, our relationship to natural resources and personal histories, this exhibition will feature a one-day symposium focusing on the role and agency of the artist in a time of international political, economic and cultural uncertainty.

The artists in this exhibition have a deep connection to the material of clay, and its ability to connect us to experiences both visceral and immediate as well as intimate and ephemeral. Work such as the Tea Project has very specific political content: recreating in porcelain hundreds of polystyrene cups decorated with flowers by Guantanamo Bay prisoners, while the work of Linda Swanson uses the action of time, the interaction of natural materials and entropy to remind us of the ecosystems that surround us, are contained within us, and are always in flux.

Artists: 
Amber Ginsburg, Aaron Hughes, Shauna Merriman, MJ Bole, Shay Church,
and Linda Swanson.

Symposium
October 13, 10 a.m.–8 p.m.

Mitchell Auditorium, Ohio University School of Art + Design

10 a.m.–12 p.m. Artists’ Presentations
1:30–4 p.m. Panel Discussion, followed by Roundtable Sessions
5–8 p.m. Reception at the Dairy Barn Arts Center

Panel discussion with Amber Ginsburg, Aaron Hughes, Alex Hibbitt, Loren Lybarger, Samuel Dodd, Ziad Abu-Rish, and moderated by Danielle Julian-Norton.

Mary Jo Bole’s Clay Belt Bus Tour
October 20, 7:30 a.m.–6:30 p.m.

A guided tour of regional Ohio ceramic history, with artist Mary Jo Bole coordinated through the Dairy Barn Arts Center

A brisk pace and long day are necessary for this unique tour of the history and evolution of Ohio’s Clay Belt. From Haydenville to Zanesville, regional geology supported numerous ceramic industries spanning the Industrial Revolution and beyond. Participants will visit massive ruins of factories that didn’t survive, as well as those that persevered into modern success stories. Today, these factories make bulletproof vest components, pizza stones, turbine parts and more! Along the way, the tour will also see examples of ceramic influences in architecture, cemetery monuments and mining history.

Vist the Dairy Barn Arts Center page for more information about this event.

This exhibition and related events are made possible through support from Arts for OHIO, the ceramics department at Ohio University, the School of Art + Design visiting artist fund, Honors Tutorial College, The Middle Eastern and North African Studies Certificate, The Islamic Studies Program of the Department of World Religions and Classics, The Dairy Barn Arts Center, and Standard Ceramics.