2012 SPRING
February 23–June 17
VIVIANE LE COURTOIS: EDIBLE?
Twenty-two Years of Working With Food
Featuring the new interactive installation The Garden of Earthy Delights
West Gallery and East Gallery
Although Viviane Le Courtois has been working with food as a medium or source of inspiration since 1990, Edible? at Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art presents the first opportunity to experience a large selection from this body of work in context. In addition to the newly commissioned interactive installation The Garden of Earthy Delights, the exhibition comprises a mid-career retrospective of food-related work of the past twenty-two years by this Denver-based artist. Through sculptures, performances, videos, photos, prints, and interactive installations, Le Courtois explores the processes of consumption, focusing on the repetitive aspects of food preparation, ceremonial food offerings, and the social implications of eating.
The earliest works in the exhibition, executed in France in the 1990s before her move to the US, include an installation of chewed licorice sticks as well as photos and video documentations of performances and sculptural work made from foraged foods, fruit peelings, and nut shells. For a series of Pickles from the early 2000s, Le Courtois filled over 200 jars with liquid and all kinds of objects in memory of her then recently-deceased mother, who had a tendency to keep pickle jars long after the contents had been consumed.
A series of etchings employing the naturally occurring acids of the kombucha mushroom continues to fascinate Le Courtois, who has created over forty different plates since first developing the process in 1995. A number of these prints, as well as the mushrooms used to create them, will be on view alongside large-scale sculptures from a series of works created from junk food such as chips, candy, and marshmallows. These include the Cheetovore, Shane The Obese Marshmallow Teenager, a group of Little Fat Kids – small figurines made from melted and cast candy, and the Venus of Consumption, a crocheted sculpture of an obese, reclining woman.
Since 2010, Le Courtois has become more interested in aspects of interaction and participation and has organized a number of events for which she prepared and served meals for a large number of guests, including How to Eat An Artichoke, held at RedLine Denver in 2010, and a curry dinner for the exhibition Do It! at Rocky Mountain College of Art + Design in 2011.
The Garden of Earthy Delights, a living interactive installation created for BMoCA, is envisioned as a space for people to relax, think, and interact. Herbs such as mint, verbena, thyme, sage, and rosemary will be arranged throughout the gallery in vertical gardens for consumption in tea, in reference to the ancient process of growing, collecting, and consuming plants. During weekly performances, the artist will tend to the plants, serve tea, and offer food samples.
Viviane Le Courtois was born in France in 1969. She moved to the US in 1994 and currently lives in Denver, Colorado. She received her Diplôme National Supérieur d’Expression Plastique (MFA) in Sculpture/Installations from the International School of Art and Research in Nice, France in 1992 and an MA in Art History from the University of Denver in 2000. In 2009 Westword presented Le Courtois with the Mastermind Award in Visual Arts. She was a resident artist at RedLine Denver from 2008 to 2011. She regularly exhibits in the US and Europe and has shown her work at the Passerelle Art Center in France, Mobius in Boston, and at many venues in Colorado, including Rocky Mountain School of Art + Design, Regis University, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver during the 2010 Biennial of the Americas.
FOOD AS ART
A Series of Food-centered Performances
BMoCA Present Box
Corresponding with BMoCA’s spring 2012 exhibition, Viviane Le Courtois: Edible?, artists create evening-long events to engage visitors with various aspects of food. For this series, the museum store will be turned into the Present Box—a temporary exhibition space for installations, performances, and events that involve food as medium and subject.
Free public events.
Teresa Booth Brown: A Unified (Edible) Scheme
on view March 1–4, 2012
Reception & Rituals: March 1 & 2, 6pm
Colorado-based artist, pattern-maker, seamstress, master gardener, beekeeper, farmer, and pastry chef Teresa Booth Brown creates a mandala comprised of individual cookies printed with an edible image. In the tradition of destroying mandalas as a meditation on impermanence, visitors will engage in the ritual act of destruction by eating the cookies.
bARTer collective: FoodLore
on view March 8–11, 2012
Reception & Performances: March 8 & 9, 6pm
Experience a culinary encounter by participating in an exchange with the bARTer collective. Receive a commemorative object when you share your FoodLore—a food-related story or memory tied to a recipe. Featuring food, trading, interactive performances, surprises, and a special contribution by guest artist Rebecca Vaughan.
JASON ROGENES: SP4C3CR4FT
Union Works Gallery
Styrofoam and cardboard, the quintessential symbols of our consumer culture, are the materials of choice for Brooklyn-based artist Jason Rogenes. Making use of commonly disregarded aesthetic attributes, including their inherent surface qualities, color, and varying degrees of translucency, he creates large-scale installations, suspended sculptures, and reliefs. Illuminated from the inside, the works acquire a monumental and spiritual presence usually associated with totems or space stations, and are equally representative of human aspirations and accomplishments.
Rogenes affords as much care and attention in the treatment of his abundantly available material as a sculptor working in marble or alabaster would. Piece by individually carved piece is assembled into a complex structure, thoughtfully fit together according to the rules of his artistic vision. What he offers is not only a creative way of looking at everything in our environment beyond assigned functions and limitations but also an opportunity to reimagine ourselves with open eyes for endless possibilities.
Conceptually connected to the sculptural work are his drawings, which are sometimes created as preparatory studies for his sculptures, sometimes as documentation following the installation. A number of these drawings, executed in ink and watercolor on paper, will be on view as part of the exhibition at BMoCA, adding a two-dimensional component to the experience.
Jason Rogenes was born in 1971 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He holds an MFA from the University of California at Santa Barbara (1996) and a BA from University of California, San Diego (1993). His work has been shown at Big Light Show, Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO (2010); Manuf®actured: The conspicuous transformation of everyday objects, Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR (catalogue) (2008); Site-specific Installation at Navy Pier Walk, Chicago, curated by David Pagel (2003).
2012 SUMMER
June 28 – September 9, 2012
VISUAL RHYTHM
All galleries
Visual Rhythm presents non-narrative, abstract, and immersive experimental film, video, and digital art, connecting recent directions in media art to earlier modes of expression. Focusing on shape, color, design, environment, and audio-visual experience, as well as time-based and performance art, the exhibition encompasses the entire museum, with different areas dedicated to distinct methods of representation, ranging from film and video projection, to screen and computer based displays.
While the works on view differ significantly in ways of presentation and conceptual methodology, each appeals to the sense of seeing as an experience, rather than a means of reading information or visual meaning. Their non-narrative, impressionistic, sometimes poetic qualities may invoke emotional response to intense sensual stimulation.
Underscoring its universal appeal and the fact that this kind of work is being produced the world over, the exhibition includes a number of national as well as international artists. Significant contributions by Colorado artists are highlighted in the context, with special acknowledgment of the pioneering work of Stan Brakhage.
MEDIALIVE 2012: Confluence & Contradiction
July 13–15, 2012
A forum for the exploration of live transmedia arts
Organized by Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
with David Fodel, Paco Proano, and Janet Feder
Expanding the visual emphasis of its summer 2012 exhibition Visual Rhythm, BMoCA presents Medialive 2012, a live media symposium of workshops, panel discussions, parties, and performances with regional, national, and international artists. Focusing on experimental electronic music and image generated sound art, the three-day event functions as a forum for experimentation, idea exchange, and celebration.
2012 FALL
NOSTALGIA IS DEATH: Urban Vinyl and the Designer Toy Phenomenon
a collaboration between kidrobot and Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art
All galleries
The exhibition marks kidrobot’s ten-year anniversary, tells the story of its development, and introduces the company’s Boulder presence to a broader audience. In addition to presenting an overview and history of the development of the international designer toy phenomenon, the exhibition features the work of artists who have designed these toys, including their two-dimensional and sculptural work. Live mural painting, large-scale toy decoration with visitor participation, and pop-up shop happenings will expand the exhibition beyond museum walls.
