For Immediate Release
August 26, 2004
Contact:
Brent Sverdloff 781/259-3628, bsverdloff@decordova.org
mobiustrip
A video collaboration by the Mobius Artists Group
Phyllis and Jerome Lyle Rappaport/Media Space Gallery
September 18, 2004 - January 2, 2005
Opening Reception: Friday, September 17, 2004, 7 - 9 pm
LINCOLN, MA-The Mobius Artists Group creates and performs experimental work in all media, and has for over twenty-five years been Boston's primary presenter of performance, installation, video, and sound art.
mobiustrip is a collaboration among all twelve current Mobius artist-members, who have created a video installation that features individual short video art clips woven together into a metaphorical Möbius strip. A Möbius strip is a surface with only one side, formed by giving a half-twist to a narrow strip of paper and then pasting its two ends together, a dimensional paradox. Visitors do not need to know that in order to view the work, but it may help them detect the ways in which this spatial arrangement influenced the artists and the relationships among the segments.
Each video is meant to represent a different letter of the word "mobiusmobius" through a sound or a shape-objects start with, or simply use, each letter. The outcome is a fun and unpredictable video rebus puzzle, as the videos swerve between the abstract and the concrete. Each artist was assigned a primary letter from "mobiusmobius," along with the following letter as a secondary motif. For example, if the artist was assigned the letter "m," the letter "o" is also incorporated. Here are some of the ways that the artists represented the letters:
- In American Sign Language
- By a visual shape
- By a tracing of a moving object
- By a path taken by the videographer
- With something that begins with the same letter
- By the sound of the letter
- By representing the word that is the letter
- With puns
The Mobius Artists Group members who created this work are Bob Raymond, Margaret Bellafiore (Tittemore), Marilyn Arsem, Jed Speare, Nancy Adams, Joanne Rice, Marjorie Morgan, David Miller, Mari Novotny-Jones, Tom Plsek, Larry Johnson, and Milan Kohout. mobiustrip is organized by DeCordova's Curator of New Media George Fifield.
Events Related to mobiustrip
Come meet New England artists and discover how the act of creating artwork can be just as exciting as looking at the final product. To supplement the exhibition mobiustrip, members of the Mobius Artists Group will present live performances in the Museum's Third Floor Lobby on the following Saturdays at 3 pm:
Mari Novotny-Jones and Milan Kohout October 30
Jed Speare and Larry Johnson November 6
About the Mobius Artists Group
The Mobius Artists Group, founded by Marilyn Arsem in 1977, is known for incorporating a wide range of the visual, performing, and media arts into innovative live performance, video, installation, and intermedia works. The members of the group create projects individually and collaboratively with members of the group, as well as with other artists. mobiustrip represents the third group-wide collaboration.
The Mobius Artists Group has produced hundreds of original works that have attained critical acclaim in Boston, nationally, and internationally. Members of the group have presented work throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Mobius has long been committed to creating artist exchange projects bringing artists from different geographic regions to work together. The international exchange projects with artists from Macedonia, Croatia, Poland, and Taiwan have focused on site-specific and publicly-sited work.
The Mobius Artists Group has had about 45 different members over the past 27 years. You could look at this as 45 artist residencies of various lengths over the organization's history. There are people in the current group who have been involved since the beginning, others just a few years. Short-term members inject the group with new energy and ideas; long-term members provide continuity and allow critical discourse to evolve and deepen over time.
Mobius, Inc. is funded by The Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC), a state agency; the LEF Foundation; the Boston Cultural Council, a Municipal Agency which is supported by the MCC; the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts; the Trust for Mutual Understanding, and generous private support. More about the performance art group can be found at www.mobius.org.
General Information
DeCordova Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm and on selected Monday holidays. As of September 18, 2004: General admission during Museum hours is $9 for adults, $6 for senior citizens, students, and youth ages 6-12. Children age 5 and under, Lincoln residents, and Active Duty Military Personnel and their dependents are admitted free. The Sculpture Park is open year round during daylight hours. The Store @ DeCordova and the School Gallery are open Monday through Thursday, 9:30 am to 7:30 pm, Friday through Saturday, 9:30 am to 5:30 pm, and Sunday 11:30 am to 5:30 pm. The Café @ DeCordova is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 am to 3 pm. Free guided public tours of the Museum's main galleries take place every Thursday at 1 and Sunday at 2 pm. Free tours of the Sculpture Park are given on Saturday and Sunday at 1 pm from May to October. Visit www.decordova.org or call 781/259-8355 for further information.
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