AMHERST, Mass. -- On Sunday, Oct. 7, the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College will welcome performance and installation artist Karen Dolmanisth for the launch of THE BALANCE: NATURE/SPIRIT/BODY/BREATH IMMANENCE, a site-specific work featuring dance and musical performances that will be presented in Stearns Steeple and the Neuhoff Sculpture Court as part of the Amherst Biennial 2012. The opening event will take place outdoors, and will feature a dance performance by Dolmanisth, an original musical composition by the acclaimed jazz and pop musical duo Too Human, and a performance by Aaron Hayden on Stearns Steeple's nine-bell chimes.
Dolmanisth is an international artist who creates sculptures, installations, performances, drawings, and photographs using energy from gathered objects and incorporating elements of movement, music, space, and light. Her inspiration for this project stems from a variety of influences including the work of John Cage, cave paintings and early human pictograms, healing properties and interconnections experienced at water sites, mandalas, and contemporary performance art history, theory and practice from the sixties and seventies. Her work has been featured in EXIT ART's Renegades, 25 years of performance art and in the Harry N. Abrams' compendium, NEW ART, featuring 100 influential international artists. Her exhibition record includes projects made in the United States and abroad, including the Secession Museum in Vienna, Austria, Eusebiusbuitensingel 52 in Arnhem, the Netherlands, LA MAMA and THE JOYCE/SOHO in New York City, The Wexner Center for Contemporary Art in Columbus, OH, and the University Museum of Contemporary Art at UMASS Amherst.
Dolmanisth will complete THE BALANCE over the course of several days spread across an eight-week period. In addition to the October 7 opening, visitors will have the opportunity to see the artist at work and in performance on Saturday, October 13; Sunday, October 14; Saturday, November 3; Sunday, November 4; and Friday, November 30.
During the afternoons on these dates, Dolmanisth will make pencil and watercolor drawings outdoors; create evaporating drawings of poured water; design temporary sculptures of stones and saplings; and weave leaves, branches, and small mirrors into a loom-like web that will engage the interior architecture of Stearns Steeple. In inclement weather, Dolmanisth will make drawings inspired by objects in the Mead's collection inside the museum.
The project will conclude on Friday, November 30, with a special indoor performance in the Mead's Rotherwas Room.
"We are delighted to bring Karen Dolmansth's compelling project to Amherst College in conjunction with the Amherst Biennial," remarked Mead Director Elizabeth Barker. "Whether visitors set out to see the artist at work, or discover her through happenstance, we know it will be a memorable experience."
To learn more about the Amherst Biennial 2012, sponsored by the Amherst Public Arts Commission (APAC), and organized by Terry Rooney, please visit www.amherstbiennial.com.
