Rupert Ravens

"The universe has no nouns; only verbs."
--Buckminster Fuller

"When a body moves, or a force acts, it affects the curvature of space and time.”
--Stephen Hawking A Brief History of Time

Here is an “understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular as a coherent whole. Never static or complete, it’s an unending process of movement and unfoldment."
--David Bohm Wholeness and the Implicate Order

"...a tight mesh whose principle of formal unity is contained and recapitulated in each thread, so that we find the essence of the whole work in every one of its parts."
--Clement Greenberg

Warp: the tightly stretched lengthwise core of a fabric. Woof: threads woven between the warp to create purposeful pattern. These two words, of industrial mechanical weaving, function as both noun and verb simultaneously. Often used together as a metaphoric expression for an underlying infrastructure on which a personality or culture is sown.

The Warp & Woof of these Solo Projects in this 20,000 sq. ft. exhibition comes alive in an organic process that builds on itself a layer at a time, much as an outfit ensemble progressively suits the body preceding a party. Encounter an orchestration that trumps any previous expected pattern, or repetitive status quo of art fashion, by proffering a raw "more". This maneuver tailors a post contemporary seam of interaction & connectivity in the imbued metamorphosis of space & time.

Today, glass fiber tangibly knits us together in a world-wide digital data community much like the Inca's Khipu or decimal system of "talking" knots. The ethernet conveys and stores our collective memory, commerce, news, personal interaction and archives. Accumulating ever more, every second... it is NOT static. Beyond a repository, it’s a biotic entity.

On the network where smartdevice multimedia is woven together, mortals are simultaneously the receiver/witness, and the voice-persona - equal part participant & creator. Always "on", users concurrently become both: fabric & action, warp & woof, noun & verb.

Quantum physicists - deploy the colossal Hadron Collider to smash apart the strands (weft) of elements in order to scrutinize the behavior of infinitesimal particles. However, they are at a loss to precisely delineate what is transpiring at the sub-quark constituent level because no language exists to do so. Nothing remains the same. Down to the miniscule particle level, everything ultimately concedes vibration. Nothing is static - a continual pulsating gesticulation.

Similarly, the Native American Lakota language has almost no linguistic objects, but primarily communicates with (non-objective) words of action. Verbs are the only word class that is obligatory in Lakota sentences. The dialect has numerous ways to describe subtle aspects of social behavior, personal attributes, and metaphors – All based on nature. Thus Lakota verbal intuitiveness communicates the innate impermanence of all things thus honoring the vibratory nature of the universe.

Coming to life, in the flourishing mythos of this once thriving silk manufacturing mill, are multiple objects & constructs. Creations brought into existence along a Warp & Woof of ocular reverberation. Experience fabrications by artists who pioneer a resonating aesthetic experience. Their respective works visually burst out with heartfelt invitational gestures offering:
More not less...
Substance not duplicity...
Remuneration not Post modern deflection...

Antonio Serna
Elizabeth Mackie
Ellen Weisbord
Fred Gutzeit
James Brendan Williams
Joanna Platt

John Spears
Kate Dodd
Kate Raudenbush
Larry McKim
Monika Zarzeczna
Pat Lay

Richard Wislocky
roycrosse
Scott Furman
Steve Zolin
Wayne Roth
William Oliwa

Press Release [PDF 229KB] | Press Release with images [PDF 3.3MB]

Coming Soon

Rupert Ravens
Gae Savannah, Associate Curator
Laura Kelly, Assistant to Mr. Ravens

Exhibition Production
Michael L Goldner, Technical Coordinator

Gallery Production Assistants
Carlos Garcia
Casandra Rodriguez
Joey Ro
Melanie Piekema

Installation Assistants
Brian Burak
Carol Rathgeb
Jeremy Bell
Jose Pena
Stephanie Sanchez
Vicky Sebastiani

Digital Design
Megan Bowersox, Coordinator

Facilities
Kevin Malia, Coordinator