SPRING/SUMMER, 2012
APRIL 3 - AUGUST 24
Mining the Collection: Dimensions of Dark featuring the work of Cathy Richardson

OPENING RECEPTION: Tuesday, April 3, 2012, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m., Doug Adams Gallery.

Desert Chandelier

Sky Light

Catherine Richardson grew up near the Moors and Dales of Yorkshire England and attended Art College in London for her BFA. The natural world has always provided poetic intrigue for her, and she has used painting, sculptural installations and drawings as a platform to explore various ways of expressing the phenomenology of place.

After graduating with an MFA from John F Kennedy’s Arts and Consciousness program, Catherine was awarded the Sonoma County Emerging Artist Award and twice nominated for the prestigious Eureka Fellowship. She shows in galleries in the Bay Area and is represented by Hammerfiriar Gallery in Healdsburg California.

Since the opening of the Doug Adams Gallery in 2009, we have been reflecting on our relationship with the Badè Museum, and on the connecting currents that unite our respective missions. Both sides of the room deal with human agency, the creation of material objects, and larger questions of humanity. Together, they represent modern and ancient societies, the disciplines of art and archaeology, and visual and material culture.
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ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

When I entered into the Badè Museum’s archives, absorbing ancient fragments of relics, my thoughts spiraled through visions of time. The small, clay (olive) oil lamps primarily captivated my attention amidst the multitude of shards of a 2000-year-old archeological collection. I envisioned each person cradling their personally decorated lamp to light their way in deep darkness. Fueled by olive oil, the flame was tiny and free to conjure a multitude of shadows. I compare the phenomena with how we regard our artificial light today.

So much of life then was balanced between time lived in light and dark, even the interior of their dwellings remained low-lit during daytime. Lamplight, regarded as sacred and magical, was used during ritual at death as it was believed to restore life. Lamps, used only once, were discovered enclosed in the foundation walls of stone houses, maybe as a benevolence-bearing token.

What secrets did the tribe dwellers of Tell en-Nasbeh know, of darkness and the skies that loomed over their lives? How did this influence their spiritual beliefs and rituals? What might have constituted a dialogue with the divine? Through biblical texts we find words for Moon-God (Yarikh) and Sun-Goddess (Shapash). These existence of these deities shows a direct reverence for celestial worship.

I explore through art and imagination what may have been lost to our senses living with continual light in our lives. Modern man no longer dwells under the formless dark space of night skies. How may this have fragmented our connection to supernatural elements of the Universe? Have we developed our sense of sight at the expense of losing "sight" of our deeper relation to the galaxies? The artist Alighiero Boetti created a sculpture titled "Annual Lamp" in 1966, which only illuminates once a year, contrasting our overuse of artificial light. Have we forgotten the mysterious power of the night sky as we sleep, escaping into our dreams while we assign our cities to white-light the heavens?

I’m interested in my connection to almightiness, recognition of a higher power through a resonance with our natural world. Being able to sit out under a very black, star-laden sky is a fascinating reminder of our comparative insignificance. As we unearth evidence of ancient dwellers, we cast a light into the past. This light does not reveal the past yet it ignites our imagination and sparks our inquisitive minds. We cannot "see" what is buried in the layers of earth beneath us, yet perhaps we can sense the story of place if we sit in the silence of infinity.