“…Although Roberts’ show isn’t the first in the space, it was the first in which the artist was asked to design a body of work to highlight exposed historic features of the 105-year-old building, Anderson said.
The turret gallery stands out in the renovated building not from what was added to the room, but what was left. Exposed ceiling beams let visitors peer to the curved roof and into the structure of the turret tower.
Just as erasing charcoal from paper can create shapes and images, removing plaster from a wall and a drop ceiling, allows visitors to see the bones of the historic structure.
Some of Roberts’ work in ‘This Side of the Sun’ employs subtractive drawing technique – and not always with an eraser to paper. Pieces made of plaster show wear from their exposure to water; a black-and-white video of wind carving a canyon in a bank of snow resembles images from a canyon carved by millions of years of erosion…
…’I started to think about how we feel time,’ she said.
A piece in the turret hangs down into the gallery above a reflective surface creating the illusion of an endless line.
‘I absolutely knew I was going to use that vertical space,’ Roberts says.
A piece depicting a 2,500-year-old crater in the Icelandic highlands adorns the 105-year-old brick wall of the gallery. Under that, volcanic rocks tens of thousands of years old is strewn on the floor. The result is a piece of layered work in which the old brick wall stands as brand new against the crater and rocks.
Other works in the show depicting the Icelandic highlands also offer a commentary on time. As long as people have dared to travel in the region, the risk remains high. One piece carries a description featuring a warning written hundreds of years ago for travelers to the region. Next to that is a piece that features in its description a news account of a rescue effort by hundreds of people to save 39 stranded travelers earlier this year.
Those works, next to pieces showing the transient nature of things and the passage of time, stand as a baseline contrasted against change…”
Exerpt from article “It’s about time for local artist” by John Molseed for 507 Magazine / Post Bulletin March 5th, 2020 full article on Press page
Exhibition photography by Allison Charnin Gallery opening photography by Kalianne Morrison Photography from article by Ken Klotzbach for Post Bulletin Video by Katya Roberts
This exhibition was made possible with support by Threshold Arts. Threshold Arts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organization which was founded to program and activate the artistic and common spaces with the Castle.