A time in arcadia, exhibit at Curious Matter

A Time in Arcadia

May 19 to June 23, 2013

Presented by Curious Matter & The Jersey City Free Public Library – a special collaboration featuring work by 33 contemporary artists and a bibliography of nearly 200 selections from the Main Library’s 6 Departments and 9 Branches.

“Is not thilke the mery moneth of May,
When loue lads masken in fresh aray?
How falles it then, we no merrier bene,
Ylike as others, girt in gawdy greene?
Our bloncket liueryes bene all to sadde,
For thilke same season, when all is ycladd
With pleasaunce: the grownd with grasse, the Wods
With greene leaues, the bushes with bloosming Buds.
Yougthes folke now flocken in euery where,
To gather may bus-kets and smelling brere:
And home they hasten the postes to dight,
And all the Kirke pillours eare day light,
With Hawthorne buds, and swete Eglantine,
And girlonds of roses and Sopps in wine.
Such merimake holy Saints doth queme,
But we here sytten as drownd in a dreme.”

EDMOND SPENCER
A SHEPERD’S CALENDAR, 1579

We dream of Arcadia. Whether it’s called Eden or Shangri-la, we long for a verdant and fecund place where food comes without toil and peace fills our days. Some cultures have taken a more proactive approach to attaining this dream and set aside land to build their own Arcadias. Persian paradise gardens and the Italian Renaissance Mannerist gardens were attempts, by those with the means, to create a place separate from the dreary drudgeries of life. Extravagant fountains and statuary complemented clipped hedges and trellised vines, all surrounded by a wall to protect the sanctuary.

Ewelina Bochenska, (film stills) LOA, 2013, 16mm film decayed in homemade concoctions, including tumeric, fruits, flowers and organic material. 5:39 minutes.

Not all gardens were so grand and ornamental. Medieval monastery gardens could be intimate in scale and cultivated solely for food and medicinals. The plants themselves being the most vital component. For most life on Earth, plants are the base of the food chain. Their importance is nearly absolute. Relying upon the plentiful light of the sun for survival, plants create their own food. Often they produce more than they need at any one time. These stored reserves feed the rest of life on Earth. Roots, stems, leaves, seeds and fruit are all exploited by the diversity of living things to obtain their own nourishment for survival.

read more at www.curiousmatter.org

Hidden in plain sight guided art walk

A Radical Fairie, a retro hair salon, a famous architect, and 25 artists on a fool's quest--what do they all have in common? Downtown Jersey City! Art expert and top tour guide, Mary-Beth Shine will explain it all. From the South Bronx to Red Hook, the Lower East Side to Long Island City, Mary-Beth Shine's popular art tours have explored places you may not know about, as well as hidden gems right around the corner. This time Mary-Beth turns the spotlight to Downtown Jersey City. The tour will include stops at some of JC’s most interesting and inspiring hubs of art and expression.

"Mary-Beth is smart, insightful and pretension-free. We were thrilled she was interested in exploring Jersey City and jumped at the chance to collaborate on one of her famous tours. At Curious Matter we've created an environment where every visitor feels comfortable enough to talk about art and ask questions. Mary-Beth brings that quality to entire neighborhood explorations and she makes it a tremendous lot of fun. Her tours are absolutely terrific and we have a community eager to engage with and talk about art." Raymond E. Mingst, Curious Matter, co-founder

Mary-Beth Shine holds a BA from the University of Massachusetts/Boston and an MA in Folk Art Studies from New York University. She has conducted tours and talks at the American Folk Art Museum, the Grey Art Gallery and Study Center, New York University, and galleries and museums throughout the five boroughs as an Art History/Appreciation Instructor in the Pre-College Program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She has published in ArtJournal.

Curious Matter is an exhibition venue for contemporary visual art located in downtown Jersey City. Curious Matter is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the purposes of Curious Matter must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

 

Cost: $30 pp/Pre-registration recommended

Info: 917-676-6583 or www.shinenycart.com for more details or to register