Kohl Gallery

On the Black History of Kent County and Washington College, by Jason Patterson

Visit the Virtual Exhibit

Community Conversation Series

The first of this series titled, Legacies of Education and the Black Experience at Washington College and in Chestertown, took place on August 15th as part of Chestertown's annual Legacy Day event.  You can watch the conversation here. We will announce further community conversations soon. 

On the Black History of Kent County and Washington College, Virtual Exhibit Opening Tour & Artist Talk: October 27, 7pm 

Patterson’s talk was supported by a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Speaker grant. This talk, the exhibit, all associated events and programs are supported by a Chesapeake Heartland Fellowship and organized by Kohl Gallery. Watch a recording of the talk and Q&A here.

For more information about artist Jason Patterson, visit his website. 

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ABOUT THE EXHIBIT:

Khristian Weeks’ practice and process is experiential and experimental in nature. He works primarily with visceral phenomena – sonic, visual, kinetic, and situational to construct environments, experiences, and scenarios that expose and embrace the precarious nature of existence. Using malleable everyday materials such as plastic drop cloth and mylar sheets in conjunction with phenomena such as air and light, his works often take on animated forms that undulate in space and time, moving within carefully composed choreographies that oscillate between moments of chaos and control.  

Over the years, Weeks has nurtured a practice that relies on the perception of the viewer experiencing the work in “real” time and space; the idea that one encounters his constructions in "real life" and this makes them “real.” In our current COVID dominated reality, this is a challenging idea to explore. It brings up many questions about the nature of reality and the ways in which we are experiencing it at this moment in time. the Realest engages this question head-on. While it continues many of Weeks’ ongoing material and phenomenological practices, it introduces and explores the camera as an additional perceptual element reframing the experience of the work for our current COVID screen-mediated reality.   

The multi-layered physical experience is intentionally reimagined as an immersive audiovisual experience captured on camera to be viewed through a screen. The screen acts as a surrogate for the physical; a site where we are asked to enter a recontextualized interpretation of reality. It is a psycho-physical space that questions and challenges our perception of “real” space and time. The work is site specific – built and situated within the Kohl Gallery setting, but we are forced to experience it through the video format. Using the camera as a portal and the screen as a site of experience takes our eyes, ears, and imaginations on an immersive journey. While the video medium creates a layer of removal, it succeeds in translating and transcending the physical experience of the work. As viewers, we are transported into a surreal reinterpretation of reality. However, while this is indeed an experience in and of itself, we never lose sight of the physical; slowly unveiling a perceptual conflict that draws attention to our inherent disconnection and dislocation as it makes its best attempt to locate and connect.  

In addition to this layer of removal, the kinetic installations in the Realest are reminiscent of nature and bring to mind moving clouds, landscapes, waterfalls, waves, and reflections of light on the night sea. But these constructions are not the real thing; they are intentionally provisional simulations clearly taking place on and inside Kohl Gallery walls. The work doesn’t attempt to mislead the viewer into thinking it is something or somewhere else. However, it is embedded with metaphor and subtle codes that question our current reality of life navigated through a series of screens; mere windows that expose a deep longing for “the real.”   

The interpretation of biomorphic forms are intertwined with real images of nature, further conflating the terms by which we experience and understand the work (and life by extension). Again, perception is interrogated using a series of actual and implied confrontations: the literal and its metaphorical counterpart; the real and its representation; the moment and its recording; the act and its image. Each is presented and experienced within the universe of the mediated meta-reality of the screen, bringing us full circle to the work’s tongue-in-cheek title: the Realest, which perfectly embodies the profound longing and questioning prevalent throughout the work.  
- Tara Gladden, Gallery Director and Curator for Kohl Gallery

A virtual conversation with Khristian Weeks
September 14, 2:30pm

For more information about the artist visit:
https://www.msac.org/artists/khristian-weeks#/0

Sarah Jamison Virtual Artist Talk

September 28, 2:30pm

Sarah’s artwork explores the notion of authentic experience and the human condition through the lens of contemporary digital life. Sarah is inspired by the emotion and conflict that underlies the mortal experience, and how it is expressed and interpreted through digital media. Weaving together Internet aesthetics and cultural artifacts and drawing from sourced imagery, each piece represents the dread, beauty and anxiety of existence in a hyper-connected and ever-evolving world where technology and mankind are increasingly entwined.

Using colored pencil, marker, gouache, ink, and paint pens, Sarah creates drawings that are brimming with exuberant color and movement while equally sterile and contained. She uses conventional fine arts materials as a homage to art historical tradition but endeavors to unify the media to create seamless pieces that defy the appearance of any specific medium. http://www.sarah-jamison.com

Questions? Contact Tara Gladden: tgladden2@washcoll.edu

About Kohl Gallery