Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Bridge Club at 1708 Gallery

From The Bridge Club's Blog:

"The Observation Room
by The Bridge Club
1708 Gallery, Richmond, VA


The Observation Room, an installation, performance, and video work by The Bridge Club collaborative will be on view at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, VA from July 17- August 15, 2009.

The Observation Room incorporates a Victorian notion of identity—that our identities can be contained by our possessions and surroundings, and that our stories can be told by what we leave behind. The multipart exhibit features four related components: 1., a gallery exhibit invoking the carefully arranged display of a history museum; 2., a built environment containing a series of domestic spatial vignettes, inviting from the viewer the construction of narrative facilitated by any historical display; 3., a one-night performance, calling to mind the fictitious historical reenactment seen at Colonial Williamsburg or any ‘living history’ museum; and 4., a video depicting the physical use of historic objects and preserving a record of their function in familiar documentary fashion.

Using simultaneously the conventions of contemporary art—clean white walls, oversized video projection, and temporal, live performance—as well as the conventions of historic preservation, The Observation Room challenges and conflates our ideas about the collection and preservation of art and objects, and points to the viewer’s complicity in designations of value and construction of narrative.

Come by if you're in Richmond, or watch for images to be posted here following the exhibit opening."


Check out their blog- there are beautiful images posted from past performances/pieces. We are disappointed to have to be out of town, missing what will surely be a memorable evening this Friday at 1708.