March 7 - April 21, 1996
Curated by Arthur Gibbons
 

Artists:

Nancy Bowen     Tom Butter     Dave Carrow     Petah Coyne
Chris Duncan     Kenji Fujita     Arthur Gibbons     Derek Haffar
Eleanor Hubbard    Brad Kahlhamers    Grace Knowlton    Dodie Logue Perrry Steindel     Jessica Stockholder     Joy Taylor
 

It is said that certain hot water springs have square bubbles that heal not only the body but the soul. I asked a scientist if there were such a thing as a square bubble. "No", he said, "but if many bubbles were squeezed together, the sides of the innermost bubbles would be flattened". So, it seems they do exist in the midst of a larger community of bubbles - as artists do; but this will ill serve the hot springs' healing claim and dash the exquisite notion of bouncing air filled cubes. I suggest we move on with the belief that square bubbles exist - a tiny yet marvelous part of American lore.

I think many artists, particularly sculptors, seek to capture the fabled square bubble. Over the years I have known a number and variety of artists in school, on the street, in foundries, in galleries, and as a teacher. My thoughts about curating an exhibition of sculpture in the Nott Memorial are, I hope, straight forward: to show the audience numerous approaches to the making of objects and that the makers follow paths inside and outside NYC, each with a particular value and community. The essence of the Nott Memorial is reflected in the work of the artists at hand; the viewer is presented with images of community, the atom, the family, nature, the seasons, birth/death, the earth, the solar system...circles, cycles, spirals, and spheres.

Twenty years ago I entered the Pantheon in Rome unprepared for the breath-taking beauty and spirituality of the circular hole open to the heavens at the dome's top. I think of this great negative space to the skies as the penultimate object - the creation of the massive tons of brick and mortar below it. The Nott supports the dome containing a wondrous constellation of 709 tiny stained glass illuminators and a modified inscription from the Talmud which reads in simplest translation, "The day is short, the work is great, the reward is much, the Master is urgent". Now, let us celebrate the Nott and deposit the lifeblood of living artists on the second floor of this temple to the dreams of the past.


-Arthur Gibbons, March 1996