Tang Museum opens two new exhibitions

New works of organic "living art" by Paula Hayes and colorful sound sculpture by Suzanne Bocanegra will be the focus of two exhibitions that open Saturday, July 17, at the Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.  

The two shows will launch a year-long 10 ^th anniversary celebration at the Tang, which opened its doors in September 2000. The museum draws some 40,000 visitors annually, ranging from local students who visit through programs with area schools to museum-goers from across the globe.

"The Tang Museum has developed a dedicated audience of regular visitors," said John Weber, the museum's Dayton Director. "What distinguishes the Tang nationally is our identity as a teaching museum that works creatively with artists; with Skidmore faculty, students, and teachers; and with parents and kids to explore ideas through objects and exhibitions. Our anniversary exhibitions are great examples of that."

Paula Hayes: Understory, one of the two new shows, will feature "living art" that intimately connects people with the natural environment. For Understory, Hayes will transform the Tang's Payne Room into an immersive environment brimming with life. Part exhibition gallery, part lounge, and part dining room, the space will include a forest of large silicone planters housing small trees; a series of Hayes's exquisite hand-blown glass terrariums, which serve as home to a wide variety of plants and gems; and new custom-designed wallpaper and dinnerware. The installation will be the site of a number of special events and discussions throughout the year.

Hayes, a graduate of Skidmore's University Without Walls program, took steps in the mid-1980s to merge her art practice with everyday demands by developing a gardening business in New York City to help support her graduate studies at Parsons School of Design. Her work has expanded to include large-scale garden design for numerous public and private landscapes nationally and internationally; mesmerizing hand-blown glass terrariums; malleable silicone planters that adapt in shape to a plant's growth; necklaces crocheted to cradle living plants; and bird houses, baths, and feeders.   In 1999 she devised a contraption for wearing a plant on the body, similar to a mother and infant. New for the Tang is the debut of her wall coverings and custom-designed tableware. In all her endeavors, Hayes forges new relationships between artwork and owner, and the natural and human environment.

Suzanne Bocanegra: I Write The Songswill present a range of work by this New York-based artist, including wall works, sound and video installations, and a new piece that combines live dance and recorded sound. From her wall arrangements that map the work of 17th century Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Elder to a sound piece made in collaboration with a mathematician who is also a classically trained opera singer, Bocanegra's work springs from creative dialogues with a range of collaborators. Translation is at the core of her work, and each piece can be deciphered using new systems for communicating historical and personal stories.

Her recent works, Rerememberer (All the Threads) and I Write the Songs, have spilled out of the studio, taking the form of live performances that layer music, dance, theater, and audience interaction.   For I Write the Songs(2009 ), first performed at the World Financial Center in New York City, Bocanegra incorporated public interaction, as audience members drew on musical scores that were then interpreted by the FLUX Quartet and bound into handmade scores. A selection of those scores will be on view in the gallery along with sound and video of the event.

Making its debut will be Bocanegra's work Little Dot?made for the Tang exhibition. Involving sound and lighting designers, a construction crew and dancers, the piece underscores the Tang's interest in working directly with artists to realize new works.

Ian Berry, the Susan Rabinowitz Malloy '45 Curator of the Tang Museum, said, "Both exhibitions are perfect examples of the museum working alongside an artist to bring new works to life. Watching these exhibitions come together offered us a chance to share this process with our audiences and directly involve our students with two of the most inventive artists working today. Students will be performing a work upstairs and maintaining the garden downstairs at the same time; the museum is brimming with activity."  

Both exhibitions, part of the Tang's Opener series, are organized by Berry in collaboration with the artists. The Opener series is made possible with support of the New York State Council on the Arts, the Overbrook Foundation, and Friends of the Tang.

Also on view this summer is Los Carpinteros and For You. For more information on the Tang Museum, its new exhibitions, and its summer programming, visit www.skidmore.edu/tang.

Summer Events at the Tang

Thursday, July 15, 6:30 p.m. - Panel Discussion: Faux Natural, a dialogue with artists Paula Hayes, Kim Keever, and Deborah Zlotsky. Moderated by Ian Berry. A Summer Art Programs event, sponsored by the Office of the Dean of Special Programs. Payne Room.

Saturday, July 17,5 p.m. - Performance of Little Dot by Suzanne Bocanegra, Tang Malloy Wing galleries

Saturday, July 17,6-7:30 p.m. - Tang Summer Opening Reception

Tuesday, July 20,noon - Curator's Tour: Paula Hayes: Understory and Suzanne Bocanegra: I Write the Songs, with Ian Berry, Malloy Curator, Tang Museum

Tuesday, August 3, noon - Curator's Tour: Paula Hayes: Understory and Suzanne Bocanegra: I Write the Songs, with Megan Hyde, Curatorial Assistant, Tang Museum

Family Saturdays July 17, 24, 31; August 7 &14, 2 ?3:30 p.m. - For children ages 5 and up with their adult companions, this program offers a brief tour followed by a hands-on art activity. Reservations strongly suggested. Call 518-580-8080.

UpBeat on the Roof, Fridays through August 27, 7 p.m.  - An eclectic series of free music performances on the rooftop of the Tang Museum. Rain location inside the museum.