Rod Macneil on 13 Mar 2001 01:05:29 -0000


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[Nettime-bold] Ed Osborn/MATRIX 193 Vanishing Point


Press contact:
Rod Macneil
510.643.6494

Ed Osborn/MATRIX 193  Vanishing Point

Artist uses museum building as speakers in
new site-specific sound installation

March 18 through May 13, 2001



-  Oakland-based sound artist Ed Osborn will use low-tech gadgetry to 
turn the UC Berkeley Art Museum into a sound sculpture as part of his 
site-specific installation Vanishing Point.

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum is proud to present 
Osborn's work as part of its acclaimed MATRIX Program for 
Contemporary Art.  Ed Osborn/MATRIX 193 Vanishing Point will open at 
the museum on Sunday, March 18, and run through Sunday, May 13, 2001.

Originally trained as a composer in traditional forms of music, 
Osborn made the transition to installation art ten years ago as his 
interests began to outstrip the possibilities of conventional 
composition.  Today he creates mechano-acoustic sculptures - 
sculptures that, when activated, make a noise - using such mundane, 
everyday items as fishing rods, model trains, music boxes, rubber 
tubing, and electric fans.

Despite their low-tech origins, Osborn's works deal in a 
sophisticated array of sound-related physics, including shadow audio 
images, transduced movements, sounding ghosts, inaudible artifaces, 
sonic depictions and ultrasound sensings.  The content of his works, 
however, deliberately draws upon the types of sounds and experiences 
that are part of our everyday lives.  Osborn's intention is that his 
audience need not possess a complex understanding of how his 
sculptures work in order to appreciate them.

In essence, Osborn's sculptures transform one form of energy into 
another - for example, motion into sound.  In earlier works such as 
Swarm (1998) he combined electric fans with ultrasound sensors that 
were triggered by the movement of people throughout the gallery 
space, switching the fans on and off in apparently random patterns. 
In Night-Sea Music (1998) Osborn made a wall of rubber tubes that 
undulated like seaweed as operetta was played through the small music 
boxes to which they were attached.  Unlike these works, Osborn's 
installation for the UC Berkeley Art Museum, Vanishing Point, will 
not have a conspicuous sculptural element.  Instead the installation 
uses a series of small speaker drivers attached to windows in the 
museum's galleries, magnifying and transmitting the vibration of the 
glass to people both inside and outside museum.

Public Programs
Artist's Talk
Sunday, March 18, 3:00 p.m.
Osborn will be present at the museum to give a talk and musical performance.

Gallery Talk
Curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson
Thursday, May 3, 12:15 p.m.
In a talk that will address two strikingly different MATRIX 
exhibitions, curator Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson will highlight the 
sources and inspiration behind Ed Osborn's Vanishing Point and Ricky 
Swallow's For those who came in late (April 21 - May 27).

Credit line
The MATRIX Program at the UC Berkeley Art Museum is made possible by 
the generous endowment gift of Phyllis Wattis.

Additional donors to the MATRIX Program include the UAM Council 
MATRIX Endowment, Ann M. Hatch, Eric McDougall, and the California 
Arts Council.

Vanishing Point was developed in part with support from the DAAD 
Artists-in-Berlin Program, the John Simon Memorial Guggenheim 
Foundation, and the Oakland Cultural Affairs Commission.

The museum also wishes to thank Earlene and John Taylor for their 
support of Ed Osborn/MATRIX 193 Vanishing Point.

About MATRIX
Known for presenting innovative, sometimes challenging work that 
might be difficult to show in commercial galleries or more 
traditional museum spaces, the BAM/PFA's 22 year-old MATRIX program 
demonstrates that art is vital, dynamic, and thought-provoking.  In 
the last two decades, MATRIX has presented more than 180 exhibitions, 
including artist such as John Baldessari, Jean-Michel Basquiat, 
Louise Bourgeois, Willem De Kooning, Richard Diebenkorn, Nan Goldin, 
Eva Hesse, Sol LeWitt, Nancy Spero, and Andy Warhol.  Recent 
exhibitions have featured Shirin Neshat, Doug Aitken, Peter Doig, 
Tobias Rehberger, and Ernesto Neto.  MATRIX not only provides the Bay 
Area with a schedule of cutting-edge exhibitions, but has also 
attracted national and international acclaim.

Upcoming MATRIX exhibitions
Ricky Swallow/MATRIX 191  For those who came in late
APRIL 21 - MAY 27
Australian artist Ricky Swallow's works are informed by both his 
acute political awareness and his fondness for '50s comic strips. 
The result: meticulously hand-crafted installations that blend whimsy 
with a disturbing undertone of malevolence and obsession.  Swallow's 
MATRIX exhibition, which will feature both sculpture and drawings, 
will be his first solo museum exhibition in the United States.

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film 
Archive is located at 2626 Bancroft Way, just below College Avenue 
near the UC Berkeley campus
Gallery Hours: Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday 11 to 5; Thursday 11 to 9
Admission: General admission $6; Seniors and Students 12 - 18 years 
$4; BAM/PFA members, UC Berkeley students, staff and faculty,  and 
children under 12 free; group tour member $3 (to arrange, call (510) 
642-5188); Free Thursdays 11 to 9
Information: 24 hour recorded message (510) 642-0808; FAX (510) 
642-4889; PFA recorded message: (510) 642-1124  TDD: (510) 642-8734 
Internet address: http://www.bampfa.berkeley.edu



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