Join us on Saturday, October 21, 2:00pm for an artist talk and gallery walkthrough with Aurora Robson. Learn more about her exhibition The Tide is High.
The Halsey Institute presents a site-specific installation by NY-based sculptor Aurora Robson. As an artist who explores ecological issues, she creates lively and intricate sculptures from plastic debris, transforming quotidian waste into aesthetic objects of beauty and reflection. Under her meticulous manipulation, the plastic materials she uses in her works take on an organic quality, thus connecting back to nature. Many of her works take on forms that resemble the otherworldly organisms that exist on ocean floors; in this way, her work is further associated with the sea, which is often the ultimate repository for plastic waste. Her works reference a legacy of using found objects as media for sculpture, and by transforming everyday trash into works of art, her sculpture forces viewers to consider their own relationship with plastic materials and waste.
On the occasion of the exhibition Aurora Robson: The Tide is High as part of SEA CHANGE, the South Carolina Aquarium presents the lecture “The Tide is High: Where Art and Action Collide” by Aurora Robson. As an artist dealing with ecological issues and founder of Project Vortex, an international collaborative of artists who use upcycled plastic in their work, Robson continually blurs the line between art and activism. In this lecture, she will detail how these worlds converge in her artwork.
Can one man’s trash be another’s treasure? Activist artist Aurora Robson focuses on intercepting the waste stream and changing the conversation around plastic pollution. With an estimated 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic in our oceans today, Robson demonstrates how to reuse plastic in sculpture form with Wave, a breathtaking “ring of fire” made from recovered Tide detergent bottles.
In connection with his exhibition Midway, artist and filmmaker Chris Jordan will give a public lecture at the Sottile Theatre at the College of Charleston. In this lecture, Jordan will describe his voyages to the Midway Atoll, a remote island in the Pacific Ocean where he has documented the plight of native albatrosses who are affected by ocean plastic.
A documentary film by Chris Jordan, ALBATROSS will have its theatrical premiere in Charleston in conjunction with Jordan’s exhibition Midway at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. In the film, Jordan presents his trips to Midway Atoll, an island chain in the Pacific Ocean that receives very little human contact. Despite its isolation from the rest of the world, Midway sits amid the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a swirling vortex of plastic waste carried via currents from all around the world.
Jordan’s film gives viewers an intimate look into the lives of the native Laysan albatrosses and how their existence is threatened by the plastic-waste habits of the rest of the world.
This film will be shown at the Charleston Music Hall, located at 37 John Street. It is free and open to the public.
Want to ask Chris Jordan questions about his series Midway? Or learn more about his efforts of visualizing data to help understand the world’s plastic consumption problems better? Join us on Saturday, October 28 at 2:00 PM here at the Halsey Institute for an informal chat with Chris Jordan. Instead of giving a typical gallery talk, Jordan will be on hand to answer questions and provide more insight into his works and ideas. This event is free and open to the public.
This lecture is part of our Meet the Maker series for Postmodernist members and above. To join our membership program, please visit here or call 843-953-5652.
Widely considered to be one of the finest American painters of his generation, Brian Rutenberg has spent forty years honing a distinctive method of compressing the rich color and form of his native coastal South Carolina into complex landscape paintings that imbue material reality with a deep sense of place.
He is a Fulbright Scholar, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow, a Basil Alkazzi USA Award recipient, an Irish Museum of Modern Art visiting artist program participant, and has had over two hundred exhibition throughout North America. Rutenberg’s paintings are included in such museum collections as Yale University Art Gallery, The Butler Institute of American Art, Bronx Museum of Art, Peabody Essex Museum of Art, Greenville County Museum of Art, Provincetown Art Association and Museum, South Carolina State Museum, and many others. His popular YouTube videos “Brian Rutenberg Studio Visits” are viewed daily by people all over the world. Radius Books published a full color monograph in 2008. Brian’s new book, Clear Seeing Place, was released in October 2016.
Brian lives and works in New York City with his wife Kathryn and their two children.
For members at the Conceptualist level + Enjoy the party before the big crowd, or stay all night! Early access to the Moon photo booth, specialty food and drink, and early 20th century Mississippi blues performed by Joel Hamilton and Ian Gleason.
7:00 – 10:00 PM: All members
Enjoy a delightful, art-filled evening of live music by Lindsay Holler & Friends, drinks and creative fare, magical entertainment, the famous Moon photo booth, and the opportunity to win fun and creative experiences in our raffle.
Growing list of raffle items to include:
Charlotte Ballet’s Nutcracker on December 2 at the Gaillard Auditorium (two tickets)
Performance at 2018 Spoleto Festival USA (two tickets)
Groundhog Day Concert at the Charleston Music Hall (two tickets)
College of Charleston International Piano Series concerts (two tickets)
Season subscription to PURE Theatre
Bundle of products from Stitch Design Co.
One night at the Francis Marion Hotel, including breakfast
Framed limited-edition print from the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art’s patron print collection
All members are welcome. Our members support the Halsey Institute’s innovative exhibition and educational programming, which has become a vital part of the Charleston community.
Artist and activist Sabra Moore will speak on her decades of involvement in the women’s art movement in New York City and the ways the ideas from this period continue to influence her current art practice. Moore was a member of the influential feminist activist group Heresies Collective and president of the NYC chapter of the Women’s Caucus for Art. She was involved in organizing and curating some of the earliest large-scale exhibitions of women artists in New York City, and she played a key role in organizing the famed 1984 demonstration against MoMA in protest of their exclusion of women artists. Moore recounts this period in her life in her recently published book, Openings: A Memoir from the Women’s Art Movement, New York City 1970–1992 (New Village Press).
Join the Halsey Institute staff for a fun and exclusive evening tour. Beginning at 6:00PM, we will lead Halsey Institute members on a guided tour of Aurora Robson: The Tide is Highand Chris Jordan: Midway. Explore the exhibitions, get insider knowledge, meet other Halsey Institute lovers! This tour is for Halsey Institute members.
To join the Halsey Institute family, please visit halsey.cofc.edu/support/ or call (843) 953-4422.
