Art is often thought of as a solo venture. Popular culture is filled with images of the lonely painter, writer, or troubadour, a one-person show that seems to work best when no others are around. Even in bands, the focus seems to always be on one person.
Collaboration, however, among artists of all types, can lead to discovery and the exploration of new frontiers.
A new exhibition at Public Space One, located in the basement of the Jefferson Building, 129 E. Washington St., will explore the collaboration of artists and what can be done when art is pushed outside of its familiar boundaries. The exhibit, titled (s k i n o f a w a v e), will be on display beginning Friday. An opening reception will be held at 7 p.m. that day, accompanied by an anthology reading at 8:30 p.m. The exhibition will run through Sept. 26. After the opening reception, Public Space One will be open by appointment only, according to its website. Admission is free.
Katie Parry, who organized (s k i n o f a w a v e), got the idea for the show from a poem, which presented an image of a page floating free above the words that were supposed to be on it.
“I had never thought of the two as being separate before. I began to think about the role of the words and also the role of the page,” she said. “The idea for the show is what resulted from this inquiry.”
The name for the exhibit itself comes from the image of the foam that forms on the top, or skin, of a wave, according to Public Space One’s written description of the show.
With (s k i n o f a w a v e), Parry said that the goal is to show an exchange among artists of different media. They are presenting their work where pieces can collaborate with one another.
“I wanted to curate a show that explores a kind of exchange that is possible among artists and writers, artists and musicians, or artists and their viewers,” Parry said. “It is a type of exchange that is particularly exciting to me as an artist.”
The artists in the exhibition were chosen because their work addresses this idea.
“They are artists that I know from different times in my life and whose artwork I love,” she said.
Some of the works are collaborative, and there are individual works as well. The hope is that all the works will be viewed collaboratively. This will allow for the exchange that Parry and gallery coordinator Eric Asboe said form the idea behind the show.
An exhibition such as (s k i n o f a w a v e) is one that helps Public Space One achieve one of its main objectives as a gallery.
“We’re trying to make a nontraditional gallery, where art is interactive and reaches the community,” Asboe said, and (s k i n o f a w a v e) is one such exhibit. “We’re pretty excited [about the exhibition].”
Artists from all over the country will have work on display, as well as local artists. Screenprinter and collage artist Eva Wylie, from Philadelphia, contributed her interpretation of Windmill Island, an island that used to be in the river by the city’s center until it was torn down to allow large boats to pass through.
“I was creating this image as a sort of reinterpretation of what that space used to be,” she said.
“I was interested in the historical context of it,” she said, and she didn’t want to merely replicate the island but wanted to “invoke the spirit of the place.”
The images that Wylie used in the collage were ones that she felt related to her childhood.
“I thought of the piece as being an interlink between distance and time,” she said. “The imagery that I’ve created is already fragmented. There are little fragments of images that don’t really complete a full story. It’s very much evident where there’s a release element into the image, where the collage drawings come off the page and into the space.”
Parry, along with Eleza Jaeger and Hil Jaeger, has been working on a piece incorporating poetry, music, and animation. Parry did the animation, and Eleza Jaeger wrote the poems. Hil Jaeger composed the music, using a combination of samples, live instruments, and vocal recordings.
“We spent the winter experimenting with this form of exchange,” Parry said. “I have been creating light-filled animations out of recycled materials containing transparent places to see into and past.”
Other artists participating in (s k i n o f a w a v e) include writer Jenny Assef and artist Emily Harris, who created work based on their experiences living together in Brooklyn. Assef, Parry said, wrote about the places where they lived together in Brooklyn, and Harris did drawings. The writing and the drawings, Parry said, will be placed side-by-side.
Artists Julie Schwadron, Geoff Hilsabeck, Eliza Fernand, and Ben Estes also contributed.
Parry said the goal of the reading was to add another layer of collaboration among artists and writers.
“They are connected, because they share the goal of creating the possibility for exchange among artists in different disciplines,” she said. “It seemed like a nice idea to pair the exhibit and the reading because of this.”