Material Terrain    Jul 17 - Aug 23, 2008

In keeping with our annual tradition of summer group sculpture exhibitions, Haines Gallery is pleased to announce “Material Terrain”, an investigation into the physicality of place by 10 contemporary visual artists through a time and perception-based lens each working with varied media.

In this look at contemporary landscape-based sculpture, the exhibition explores the relationship between the natural and constructed world, employing diverse materiality and ideologies, and through these conceptually diverse projects, brings attention to the often contradictory perceptual moments that collectively represent the complexity of the time in which we live.

Alongside artists represented by Haines Gallery - Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, Alan Rath, Yoshitomo Saito, Dustin Yellin, and Zhan Wang - there is a unique opportunity to see a recent work by the prominent sculptor and conceptual artist Ai Weiwei.

His signature work “Colored Vases” incorporates Neolithic vases that have been splattered with brightly colored paint. Though they carry the “aesthetic code” of the period of their creation, this transmogrification of value from ancient to contemporary as a conceptual gesture disrupts its stability and calls into question the value of the object. As such, its conflicting layers of imagery create a complex commentary on the time and place in which it resides.

The installation by Qiu Zhijie speaks on another level to the descriptor of place. By tracing a route of pilgrimage through Tibet from one significant spiritual site to another and employing a ritual of placing stones to form Cairns along the way, this installation juxtaposes an internal sense of place with the physical construct resultant from said place. An electronic map descriptor alongside physical evidence of this movement through space expands the notion of place as ritual, as electronic directive, as internal meditative place, as defined through deed or finally as perceived political act. A complete list of the participating artists is as follows: Ai Weiwei, Andy Goldsworthy, David Nash, Qiu Zhijie, Alan Rath, Yoshitomo Saito, Dustin Yellin, Peter Voulkos, Zhan Wang, and Yanagi Yukinori.

For further information on the artist or the works included in the exhibition please see visit www.hainesgallery.com.