“From Above and Below” Lecture by Artist Sharon Harper

Bates College Olin Arts Center, Olin 104
75 Russell Street
Lewiston, ME 04240
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Artist Sharon Harper discusses her work in an artist’s talk titled “From Above and Below” at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 27 in Olin Arts Center room 104, sponsored by the Bates College Museum of Art in association with its exhibition Starstruck: The Fine Art of Astrophotography.  A reception in the Museum follows. The public is welcome, free of charge.

Harper is one of nine invited artists whose work forms a core around which the juried portion of the exhibition was built.   Her photographs and videos draw on scientific and artistic uses of photography to illuminate existential concerns, embracing photography’s contradictory ability to verify empirical evidence and evoke fantastical possibilities.  Harper received her MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York, and is represented by Rick Wester Fine Art, New York, and Galerie Stefan Röpke, Cologne.  Her work is represented in collections including Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum.  Harper has several received several honors, including residency fellowship at the Monastery of Halsnøy, Norway; Banff Centre, Banff, Canada; Ucross Foundation, Ucross, Wyoming; Vermont Studio Center; Headlands Center for the Arts; and the The MacDowell Colony.  She was also awarded a Film Studies Center Fellowship, Harvard University Film Studies Center.  A book, titled From Above and Below is due to be published this fall by Radius Books.

Harper’s works in the Starstruck exhibition come from two series she has produced which deal with the astronomy.  The first, One Month, Weather Permitting was produced at an artist’s residency in Banff, Canada, and stems from her commitment to photographing the sky each night for one month.  The other series, Sun/Moon (Trying to See Through a Telescope) engages with the experience of human perception mediated by technology.  “In works from both series,” says Anthony Shostak, Curator of Education for the Museum and organizer of Starstruck, “Harper shows us things that the human mind simply can’t see without the lens and camera.  Her works give us a beautiful way to ponder how our sensory systems, and thus our minds, are expanded by tools.”

Starstruck is an ideal exhibition for teachers in all levels of education to engage with art related to a variety of subjects including astronomy and physical science, history, geography, literature, religion, and math.  Group tours are welcome by appointment: (207) 786-8302.

The Bates College Museum of Art is open free to the public Mondays through Saturdays 10-5, and Wednesday evenings September through May until 9 p.m.  For directions and more information about events, please visit bates.edu/museum/.