Loul Samater was born in Saudi Arabia and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dickinson College (1999) and a Masters Degree of Fine Arts in Painting from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2004). She became a Visiting Assistant Professor of Painting and Drawing at the College of Charleston in 2005. Samater has exhibited in numerous galleries nationwide.

Samater's installation, Diving Dunce, will be in the first floor gallery of the Halsey Institute. Her work is derived from memories of growing up outside of America. She uses materials that connote parties-- balloons, glitter and party hats arranged in intimate settings that create a tension for the viewers, leaving them to question whether the party is over, or has yet to begin. This environment challenges the viewer to consider whether they are a participant or observer.

Jarod Charzewski was born in Winnipeg, Canada and received his Bachelors of Fine Art from the University of Manitoba (1996) and a Masters of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Minnesota (2005). Charzewski has been included in several solo and group exhibitions in the United States and Canada, and has lectured as a visiting artist at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, MN, Pitzer College in Clearmont, CA, University of Missoula, Missoula MT and at Trinity Square Video in Toronto, Ontario. The artist has been a Visiting Assistant Professor of Sculpture at the College of Charleston since 2006.

For his installation on the second floor of the Halsey, Charzewski has created <em>Scarp</em>, which references the earth and our place in it. There is what appears to be a geological formation made out of several tons of carefully folded clothing. The various strata reveal dense deposits of denim, corduroy, cotton, and different synthetic fabrics united by color and type. The artist states, "This project is about fabricating history with our own synthetic and fleeting artifacts as the medium."

Jarod Charzewski: My art examines landscapes and people, man-made structures among nature, the sometimes static, often fluid perceptions that rise from dual environments. I harness childhood sensibilities: sights and smells, sounds, memories, feelings of rural surroundings and urban streets. I fuel my art with visuals of seasons, Prairie landscapes and recreate aesthetics that investigate mankind's evolving influence. Artistically I try to capture the essence of mist in the Carmanah Valley rainforest, the dust of Alberta's Badlands, and in turn release an ephemeral sensation of site-specific experiences.

Space motivates my concept. The visual characteristics of bridges and railroad tracks, tunnels, urban communities at large, cast against the strength of natural landscapes, reflect the relationship between viewer and the work. I enhance this relationship through accessible installations, monuments to nature, to man, to our cohabitation. The art reveals the mystery of individual perceptions and develops a platform where ideas gain scope. The art conducts experiments. It approaches common occurrences, heeds disparate interests, and injects personal stance. I express these experiments through multi-media sculpture. I use interpretation. I use light, acoustics, and kinetic energy.

Everything needs space. My work reflects nature's response to man, and mankind's impact on landscapes. The result is a lens through which to see our world.

artist's website »

The undulating aura of the installation titled Scarp at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art shocks the viewer at first. Discarded shirts and trousers have been corrugated into a massive sculptural knoll. Clothing is understood in the daily scale of our bodies, so its monumental transformation is disorienting. After the initial awe in response to the collective material, the textural quality and streamlined slopes beckon the viewer closer. Next is a desire to test Scarp's unapologetic tone.

Scarp's success is in the artist's interplay with disparate disciplines and human tendencies. It is both a high-tech and hand-built work. The form was pre-determined, as well as organically decided. The outer edges reveal a narrative, while the core layers are unknown. The overall attitude: mischievous, bold and heartfelt.

Jarod Charzewski's youth unfolded among the Canadian prairies, so he conjured their geographical layers for Scarp's body and voice. As in his Silo and Vortices installations, Charzewski explores environmental disturbance and architectural planes with elegant shifts in scale, line and material. Charzewski's work resonates with that of Olafur Eliasson, whose installations also simulate natural elements with a touch of wit. Both artists give considerable thought to viewer's space. Scarp is positioned so that it must be understood from a certain distance.

In creating the piece, Charzewski first developed a computer-generated model that incorporated the dimensions of the gallery. This precision enabled the clean lines that cut the gallery in half, and highlight the corridor between the two entrances. With these design elements, Scarp is organized and accessible. Arranged greens, purple and splashes of red guide the eye across its ridges. At the edges, layers of used clothing connect the viewer to the brands, eras and individuals who wore them. This recognition, along with the serenity of its design, establishes a level of comfort that allows for a more open encounter with Scarp.

Exactness pervades throughout the gallery space, but a point of mystery lies below the tallest slope. Viewers want to know-is the entire volume comprised of folded clothes? There is a childlike inclination to root through the surface and even climb on it to learn the truth first hand. Scarp is not a tactile sculpture or space to be entered, so the viewer must accept not having all the answers. What is the importance of that knowledge anyway?

The nature of Scarp's ambiguity is more matter-of-fact than confrontational, and this shift in perspective is used to challenge other overlooked ideas. While collecting his material at Goodwill, Charzewski witnessed the sheer quantity of discarded clothes delivered on a daily basis. Scarp's monumental scale then became a testament to the scale of consumerism today. What if our other trashed items were compiled in this way? What makes a certain jacket or pair of jeans desirable one day and rejected another? Charzewski explores the very temperament of design. As with clothing, structural design hinges on its relevance to cultural values.

Charzewski playfully challenges the separation between contemporary design and conceptual art. Like the architectural abstraction of Greg Lynn's curvaceous and highly digitalized work, the amorphous shape of Scarp liberates the viewer from conventional geometric structures and square edges. But where Lynn is unabashedly futuristic, Charzewski's use of worn clothing-our most intimate material-allows humanism to breathe from its refined dimensions.

Charzewski uses his sensibility for contemporary architecture to navigate through the mundane-but consequential-nodes of human behavior. Thankfully, he is not heavy handed or pedantic. Nor is he so quiet that he loses voice amid the cacophony of fantastical and minimal work found in the urban landscape. Scarp arouses with a tease, soothes with line and encourages a change in routine.

Loul Samater: My images/objects are derived from memories I have of growing up outside of America. While some of my memories have been altered and some others have been left intact, and I use these in my work to evoke contradictory emotions and intense feelings ranging from celebration to panic.

I often choose materials that connote parties: balloons, glitter, etc. Taking these materials out of their usual context creates a tension where the viewer does not know if the party is yet to begin or has already ended. To the viewer it seems time has stopped or drained from the situation. The viewer becomes the only person in the scene, and even they aren't a so much a participant as an unwilling spectator.