Of Recollection And Collection

Form/Space Atelier Program August-September 2012

Exhibit Title: Of Recollection And Collection

Exhibit Duration: August 10-October 6, 2012

Vernissage: August 10, 6PM

     For Of Recollection And Collection, Allison Hyde will be creating a site-specific installation at Form/Space Atelier that investigates ideas of memory and recollection, in reference to domestic interiors and the history of the photograph. Her work seeks to elicit a conversation with the viewer about desire for preservation of self-identity, our physical and psychological connections to spaces and objects (see attached image), and about individual and collective experiences of memory.
     Of Recollection And Collection will be referencing site-specifically Form/Space Atelier's most salient architectural feature; the majestic stairwell.   The stair, as the symbolic spine of the house, provides throughput for other visual components of the exhibit.  Stairs, as a narrative device, appear frequently in literature, cinema and painting due to their extraordinary image power. The staircase is simultaneously a stage and an auditorium. It is also a vertical configuration of the labyrinth with consequent associations of vertigo, and getting lost.
     To simplify, the artist has established an interactive domestic zone near the street-level entrance to the exhibit, where viewers are encouraged to sift through hundreds of photographs; found and self-disclosed by the artist.  A scrapbook is available for visitors to place a chosen photograph, and viewers are encouraged to add a caption, just like we've dreamed of in the New Yorker.  We finally get our chance to write the caption, have it seen on the most irreducible of scales.  Ms. Hyde's now-familiar (10th Northwest Biennial) jumble of burnt furniture (ever a catchy phrase), is installed over Form/Space Atelier's stairwell; jumbled, tumbling down, frozen mid-tumble askew.  A tertiary component of the exhibit is a projected video on a panel overhanging the highest height in the architectural space afforded by the stairwell.  The projected video is tricky; the scale of the action in the video fools the eye if one starts viewing in the middle of the loop.  As usual, the curator or his assistant is present to engage visitors to the exhibit in a discussion of the installation, or any other reasonable topic which should arise.
     Allison Hyde was selected for the Tenth Northwest Biennial,Tacoma Art Museum. Born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, Ms. Hyde received her Masters of Fine Arts in Printmaking from the University of Oregon in 2011.  Themes of Ms. Hyde's artwork center on ideas of memory and loss, personal objects and traces of history. using works on paper, sculptural installation, digital media, and painting.