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nathalie miebach cristi rinklin michelle samour march 8 - june 7, 2015 nathalie miebach cristi rinklin michelle samour 2 3 Table of Contents 7 director’s foreword 8 acknowledgments 10 introduction nathalie miebach 12 cristi rinklin 48 michelle samour 78 94 exhibition checklist / bios 100 FAM board of trustees director’s foreword As Director of the Fitchburg Art Museum, I Many thanks to the corporate sponsors am proud of our naturetech exhibition for who helped to underwrite the costs of this many reasons. Throughout my career in the ambitious exhibition: Heat Trace Products, visual arts, I have been a fan and champion LLC, Headwall Photonics, Inc., and Paul Bryan, of the marriage of art and technology on Inc. These companies, and their leaders, truly all levels. It’s great to see FAM continue understand the importance of creativity to to proceed in this direction. I have also, both technology and the arts. for almost 1/4 of a century, been an avid supporter of New England contemporary Nick Capasso art and artists. naturetech continues our Director commitment to this vital community. I am the opening of naturetech – a show of work byalso three a feminist, women and – opened was thus on gratifiedInternational that Women’s Day. Here at FAM we have worked hard to sustain and deepen a partnership with Fitchburg State University. This exhibition features an online exhibition catalogue and blog by Fitchburg State students. The winter of 2015 has been a Siberian disaster here in Massachusetts, and naturetech is its colorful antidote, whirling with life and joy. naturetech shows off our newly-renovated galleries, and is itself an important part of the overall rejuvenation of this museum. And, it amply displays the burgeoning talents of FAM’s Curatorial and Installation team. naturetech looks like the future of the Fitchburg Art Museum. 6 7 acknowledgments I can think of no better way for FAM to this course. Kudos to Patrick Burns, Mitch naturetech is the latest exhibition in a counteract one of the coldest, snowiest, McCarthy, Marilyn Perpignant, Mitchell wing of the museum now dedicated to the harshest winters on record than through the Severt, Forrest Smith, Lindsay Tesoro, and contemporary artists of New England. It warmth, color, and energy of naturetech. Kevin Wyshak for so enthusiastically and FAM is grateful to artists Nathalie Miebach, skillfully documenting this exhibition and its in which these galleries are brimming with Cristi Rinklin, and Michelle Samour for accompanying programs and events. abstraction,represents the and first thus time is an in expression recent memory of sharing with us their infectious curiosity FAM’s mission to expose our audiences to about the natural world and their jaw- All at FAM are excited to debut our new a resplendent variety of museum-quality dropping personal aesthetics. Their smart, contemporary art from the region. vibrant, vivacious artworks nurture vital stunning artwork in this exhibition. Facilities connections between art, nature, and Managerhardwood Steve floors Backholm, as a backdrop along for with the Mel naturetech is synonymous with several technology, and – like this incredible winter kinds of vision: to see the value in looking of 2015 – remind us of our ever changing sparkling and prepped the galleries for at facets of science and nature through an relationship to the earth in which we live. Bailey and Kyle McHugh got those floors artistic lens (and vice versa), to embrace the Thank you for making work that invites us all provided Spanish label translations and lent quality of curiosity that connects artists and to be inquisitive, eager consumers of science, histhis sharp magnificent eye to thework. care Aminadab and conditioning Cruz Jr. scientists, and to understand the importance art, and beauty in equal parts. of the artwork upon its arrival at FAM, in of sharing those discoveries with a broad addition to assisting with the installation. public. This stimulating catalogue, which captures Curatorial Intern Selena Shabot lent her the essence of naturetech, was designed and talents behind the scenes in countless ways Thank YOU for bringing your inquiring minds executed by students in Professor Rob Carr’s throughout the semester. And Director of to FAM. Document Design course at Fitchburg State Marketing and Community Relations Eugene University in the Spring of 2015. Thanks to Finney deftly built platforms and pedestals Mary M. Tinti Patrick Condon, Jena Grover, Eden Gosselin, and, together with special guest preparator Curator Luke Jackson, Dennis Levesque, and Juan Orta Matt Oates (a true installation dream team), for a job well done! hung this show with a cool, calm head despite the threat of swirling snow squalls outside. We are so very thankful for this ongoing Thank you for all your efforts to make partnership with Fitchburg State. This naturetech come to life! semester, the collaboration with Dr. Carr’s students extended beyond the marvelous Once again, Director of Education Laura catalogue design to include a blog whose aim, Howick designed a clever and captivating according to the students who shaped it, was Learning Lounge experience for all FAM to, “enrich, enlighten, and entice others to visitors to enjoy. This special experience is learn more about naturetech, the Fitchburg made possible by funding from The Clementi Art Museum, and all things associated.” Thank Family Charitable Trust for which FAM is you bloggers Miguel Fleitas Jr., Tina Lam, truly appreciative. naturetech is supported Sarah Morin, Anthony Paternoster, Angela in part by generous gifts from Heat Trace Renzi, and Michael Wallmann for rounding Products, LLC, in Leominster, MA; Headwall out the ways FAM audiences can explore Photonics, Inc. in Fitchburg, MA; and Paul naturetech. Many of the photographs and Bryan, Inc. in Concord, MA. Thank you videos used on the blog were captured and sponsors! edited by yet another team of students in 9 introduction naturetech spotlights three Massachusetts artists – Nathalie Miebach (sculpture), Cristi Rinklin (painting), and Michelle Samour (mixed media) – whose colorful, data-driven artworks are fueled by collisions of art, nature, science, and technology. Miebach, Rinklin, and Samour each employ unique, abstract visual vocabularies that prompt questions about the natural world and offer exquisite, awe-inducing ways to observe, organize, depict, and understand it. naturetech is arranged to feel like three small solo shows in one big, exuberant exhibition. To accomplish this goal, FAM divided its New England contemporary art galleries into discrete spaces – one for each artist. The hope is that visitors will enjoy an intimate and immersive encounter with the individual works of Miebach, Rinklin, and Samour while making larger naturetech- inspired connections across the exhibition. This catalogue aims to mimic the layout of the exhibition for our readers, giving each artist her own set of pages and distinct design. While nothing beats an in-person experience of art, we hope you will enjoy this record of the exhibition packed with images, text, and even quotes from the artists themselves. 10 11 Changing Waters 2011 Nathalie Miebach’s turbulent artworks are rooted in real-world scientific research and a fascination with our nuanced relationship to weather. Whether on the North Pole or in Central Massachusetts, people always have a story about a storm. Miebach untangles our connection to weather by translating climatic data derived from high and low-tech instruments, as well as personal observations, into three-dimensional sculptures and musical scores. Her forms transform numerical statistics normally relegated to two-dimensional charts, maps, and graphs into exhilarating abstract objects that burst with clues about weather patterns, hurricanes, storms, blizzards, changing tides and temperatures, and whipping winds. Woven like baskets from reed and rope, and punctuated with multicolored paper, Miebach’s sculptures are dizzying, beautiful, clever, and complex. They are artworks and tools, creative expressions and authentic records that combine the methodologies of astronomy, ecology, and meteorology with those of art. nathalie miebach changing waters Changing Waters is a sweeping wall installation that takes as its subject meteorological and oceanic interactions in the Gulf of Maine. To create this artwork, Miebach gathered numerical data and information from weather stations along the coast and special buoys placed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System. She uses this research to explore, in the words of the artist, “seasonal variations of marine life” and aspects of wall of this gallery, Miebach maps out her artistic“rich New translations England fishing of these history.” data points On the in the Gulf of Maine, complete with a sculptural legend, so that viewers may better trace her vividly hued logic. The large, hanging structures, reminiscent of actual buoys, represent Miebach’s examination of “more relationships between marine ecosystems andspecific weather biological, patterns.” chemical, True ofor allgeophysical Miebach sculptures, every single detail comprising Changing Waters can be traced to actual meteorological moments and weather events. Detail of: Changing Waters 2011 15 Changing Waters 2011 The Ghostly Crew of the Andrea Gail Northeast Channel Buoy 2011 2010 16 17 northeast channel buoy Part of Changing Waters, Northeast Channel Buoy focuses on data collected above and below the water as recorded in a single calendar year by NOAA Buoy 44024 – located where the cold, nutrient rich waters of the Northeast Channel enter the Gulf through the sculpture represents of Maine.the Labrador The dragon Current. that flows Detail of: Northeast Channel 18 2010 layered life Part of Changing Waters, Layered Life looks at all the different layers of marine life present in the Gulf of Maine from the surface of the sea down to the ocean’s depths. Layered Life 2010 20 21 The Ghostly Crew of the Andrea Gail 2013 22 the ghostly crew of the andrea gail In October of 1991, an event to which meteorologists still refer as The Perfect Storm entered the Gulf of Maine.