For its collaborative project in the Front Room, The Center for Advanced Visual Studies, devoted to the production of artworks at MIT, presents a sampling of its work from the last four years. In addition to art on the walls, the exhibition also includes sketches for, parts of, and products of projects currently in production or that have already taken place.
Over the past several years, CAVS has produced new artworks, hosted artist residencies and fellowships, and presented performances, lectures, exhibitions, workshops, and parties. On view in the Front Room is Michael Smith’s Portal Excursion (2005-7) commissioned and produced at the Center, as well as drawings by residents Pia Lindman and Jessica Rylan, a birdhouse with a view by Pam Larson, and ceramic drips by Jason Schiedel. A real estate sale lawn sign stands in for Damon Rich and the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP)’s CAVS exhibition Red Lines, Death Vows, Foreclosures, Risk Structures. Paper puppets from a toy theater play based on a work of Soviet science fiction represent the collaboration between theater historian and puppeteer John Bell (a CAVS fellow), CAVS director of programs Larissa Harris, and artist and electronic musician Jessica Rylan (who for two days during the exhibition conducted a hands-on workshop to build voltage-control filters). David Reinfurt submits his article on pioneering MIT Press graphic designer Muriel Cooper, while Jane Philbrick provides a model of her interpretation of a 1961 floating sculpture by Hungarian artist Marta Pan, which Philbrick is attempting to build for a future waterlogged world. Center staff member Meg Rotzel’s diary of her experience of the Lost Highway Expedition (the August 2006 journey through the Balkans spearheaded by Marjetica Potrc, Kyong Park, Azra Aksamija); materials from projects by MIT graduate students and artists Tad Hirsch and Aksamija; and Nell Breyer’s video sketch for an outdoor winter dance project at Boston ICA are all present in the exhibition at the Contemporary.
Center For Advanced Visual Studies at MIT features work by Azra Aksamija, John Bell, Nell Breyer, the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), Muriel Cooper, Tad Hirsch, Pam Larson, Pia Lindman, Marta Pan, Jane Philbrick, David Reinfurt, Damon Rich, Meg Rotzel, Jessica Rylan, Jason Schiedel, and Michael Smith.
The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is a fellowship program that commissions and produces new artworks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Center facilitates exchange between internationally known contemporary artists and MIT’s faculty, students, and staff through public programs, support for long-term art projects, and residencies for MIT students.