The Bodies of the Mesh references philosopher Timothy Morton’s ecological theory which posits that sentient and non sentient beings on earth are connected in a “mesh,” uniting all things interdependently. Teal Gardner visualizes interdependency as near to the human body as one could get - to the ecology within it. Works mainly in clay reference our bacterial symbionts, writ large, on the surfaces of corporeal, colorful, handbuilt pots and wall-hung parts.

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Robert Ladislas Derr and Teal Gardner - Joint Reception and Artist Talk

 

Free and open to the public 6:00 – 9:00 pm Monday, September 9, 2019

 

The Gem Center for the Arts is pleased to announce two new art exhibits in the main floor gallery: The Bodies of the Mesh, an installation by Teal Gardner, and Day In, Day Out, a three-screen video installation by artist Robert Ladislas Derr.  During the opening on September 9, Gardner will have a talk and interactive event at 6:30, and BSU Professor Ralph Clare talks with Derr at 7pm. 

 

Day In, Day Out three-screen video installation by Rober Ladislas Derr

According to Professor Clare, in this installation, Derr “is less interested with the body enduring the singular and more with how it perseveres through the everyday, the anything but spectacular. We all have our daily routine that we think gives sensible meaning to our lives.  Ironically, habit shields us from boredom and despair, gives us something to fill the void of Time-unto-Death, but it also deadens us to new possibilities. Derr strips daily life and the body down to the absurd bareness of their bones. What exactly, Derr asks, is a day; how do we make meanings out of it; and what about the body that traverses it all?”

 

Robert Ladislas Derr is a prolific artist who has shown his live performances and videos internationally and nationally, including at SomoS Art House (Germany), Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (US), Canberra Contemporary Art Space (Australia), Mendel Art Gallery (Canada), Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt (Germany), Wexner Center for the Arts (US), and Irish Film Institute (Ireland). Derr earned his MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design, attended the Photography Institute National Graduate Seminar at New York University, and BFA from the Art Academy of Cincinnati.

 

Ralph Clare is associate professor of English at Boise State University. He is the author of Fictions Inc.: The Corporation in Postmodern Fiction, Film, and Popular Culture (Rutgers University Press, 2014) and the editor of the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to David Foster Wallace (Cambridge University Press, 2018).

 

The Bodies of the Mesh installation by Teal Gardner

“The Bodies of the Mesh” references philosopher Timothy Morton’s ecological theory which posits that sentient and non-sentient beings on earth are connected in a “mesh,” uniting all things interdependently. Teal Gardner visualizes interdependency as near to the human body as one could get - to the ecology within it. Works mainly in clay reference our bacterial symbiosis, writ large, on the surfaces of corporeal, colorful, hand built pots and wall-hung parts.

 

Teal Gardner is a multidisciplinary artist and educator from Nebraska who has found inspiration and creative challenge in Boise, Idaho. She holds a BA from the University of Nebraska in Anthropology, with minors in Art, Art History, and English. She has collaborated extensively through music, writing, and DIY publishing. She works in paint, clay, wood, paper, and with found and transformed objects.