Sources: Dylan Beck, djbeck@k-state.edu; Shreepad Joglekar, sjoglek@k-state.edu;
and Mike McMann, mcmann@k-state.edu. All can be contacted at 785-532-6605.
Website: http://beach.k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Beth Bohn, 785-532-1544, bbohn@k-state.edu
Monday, Feb. 13, 2012
Art talk: Three faculty members to discuss their work in the Beach Museum exhibition '2011 Department of Art Faculty Biennial'
MANHATTAN -- Three members of Kansas State University's art faculty will present artist talks about their work as part of the "2011 Department of Art Faculty Biennial" exhibition on display through March 16 at the university's Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.
All of the talks will be at the museum. The schedule includes:
* Shreepad Joglekar, assistant professor of art and photography area head, will present "Common Place" at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 15.
* Dylan J. Beck assistant professor and ceramics area coordinator, will present "Supermodernity, Emergence and the Built Environment: Reinterpreting the Human-Made Landscape," at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 6.
* Mike McMann, assistant professor of digital art, will present "Random Walks: Code and Art" at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 14.
Joglekar began using a camera as a tool in 1992. He works with hybrid techniques, using traditional large format cameras, modern film scanners and digital printers to make final prints. Two of his prints are in the biennial show: "Law Office" and "Reconfigurations." These pigment prints, from 2011, were printed on a large format Epson 9800 printer using archival inks and paper.
"Literature, art and social sciences often address the role that a sense of belonging to a place plays in enriching our social lives," Joglekar said. "I moved to the United States for graduate studies and, after initial amazement about the freeways and air conditioning, I became starkly aware of my inability to relate to my surroundings. This sense of alienation intrigued me. It also made me interested in the history of American vernacular landscape, architectural theory and the psychological relation we have with built spaces around us. In the words of Gaston Bachelard: the 'poetics of space.'"
Joglekar said his work interprets his current landscape as an immigrant transitioning from being an outsider to an insider.
"In this way photography, for me, is a process of acclimatization, not only of perception but also of all senses that read cultural stimuli. The phenomenology of the manufactured or altered spaces around me is the core subject matter of my work," he said.
Beck said his talk will look at how artists translate, interpret, understand, explore and critique the built environment through the language of sculpture, installation and performance. He said the built environment has changed drastically in the last 60-plus years, with the man-made landscape proliferating at its most rapid pace in history.
"This unique situation creates fertile ground for artistic interpretation," he said. "How do we begin to understand the social, economic and psychological implications of such growth?"
Beck said his artwork explores the interaction of built space with the natural environment and the idea that man-made landscapes express a society's material and political priorities.
"I use several tactics to illustrate this dialectic," he said. "My sculptures are constructed with materials that are found in the retail and domestic setting, along with those used in home construction. Through the examination of the world around me, aerial photography and satellite imagery, I select ubiquitous forms and imagery. I then use the same spatial relationships that are inherent in our built environment to create sculptural installations."
Beck has two works in the biennial show: "Normal-Field Instability," done in porcelain, underglaze and resin; and "Microwave Safe," done in porcelain, underglaze, paint, steel rubber and plastic. Both pieces were completed in 2011.
McMann, in his artist talk, will explore some contemporary artists using emerging technology in their art practice, and will also discuss his use of code, algorithms and emerging tools toward the production of his artworks.
"My work operates at the intersection of various disciplines, including art, design, computer science and engineering," McMann said. "From these sources, I create prints, drawings and digital objects that use techniques and tools that these disciplines yield. I aim to confront the viewer with experiences that reference historical visual culture, ex/sub/urban development, class and globalization using the languages of computation, cellular behavior, repetition and the banal to illicit a response from the viewer that asks them to contemplate their place in society at various levels."
McMann has been creating prints for more than 15 years, and has been working in digital forms for 10 years. He has two digital artworks in the biennial exhibition: the video projection "Pick Your Plan (Fairfield)" and the print "Green Hills No. 1."
For more information, contact Martha Scott at the Beach Museum of Art, 785-532-7718, or drop by the museum on the southeast corner of the K-State campus at 14th Street and Anderson Avenue. Free visitor parking is available next to the building. Museum admission is free; hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays. The museum is closed on Mondays.
