artist / participant
press release
Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design
is pleased to present the exhibition
Anna Craycroft: Tuning the Room
,
on view
January 28
– April 16, 2017. A public opening reception, featuring an acoustic
event: “Tuning the Room” by
Gregory
Lenczycki and Ken Goerres,
takes place Saturday, January 28, 2-
4pm.
In acoustical engineering, “tuning the room” is a technique for measuring the specific sound properties of an enclosed space and
then adapting the environment to improve its acous
tic reflections. New York
-based artist Anna Craycroft applies this technique
both literally and metaphorically to the Ben Maltz Gallery at Otis College of Art and Design for her exhibition
Tuning the Room
,
open from January 28 to April 16, 2017. Craycroft’
s exhibition asks that we consider how the specific characteristics of an
environment shape our experience within it, and how we become attuned
in return. It invites us to ask questions about our
reciprocal relationships beyond the exhibition
. How
do we tune our communities
, our institutions, our countries, and how
do
the
y tune us in return?
The measure and alterations of Craycroft’s “room tuning” are framed in relation to its setting within the art gallery of an art
school. In the wake of the U.S. pres
idential election
, and in anticipation of the exhibition runtime falling during the first months
of the new administration
,
Tuning the Room
is a
proposal to pay attention to the role that art and art education play in how voices
are heard.
Craycroft’s sit
e-specific installation
fills the 3,500 square foot space of Ben Maltz Gallery, dividing it into
two discrete spaces
with contrasting perceptual effects. In one half of the gallery sound and light are absorbed by hand-
dyed fabric acoustical panels
and soft
sculpture. In the other half sound and light are reflected by a chrome vinyl mural and aluminum seating. T
he absorptive
side allows for voices to be heard clearly, and invites gatherings and discussion.
The reflective side incites reverberation, motion,
and outwardness.
Tuning the Room
is presented
as an experimental tool for
engaging with ideas of behavior, voice, reception,
tuning, and the transfer of knowledge and energy.
Over the course of the exhibition, a variety of programs will take place inside
the exhibition space that respond to this adapted
environment. The events engage the teachers and students of Otis College
and are open to the public at large.
A working
calendar
—
occupying the title wall of the exhibi
tion entrance as well as online
—
will ac
t as a visible tool to the Otis College and
LA community, describing the activities occurring in the space.
Anna Craycroft lives and works in New York City. Mining fields like education, cinema, psychology, literature and art history
in
her practice, she examines cultural models for fostering individuality. Through drawings, paintings, videos, sculptures, furniture,
installations, books, workshops, or curatorial projects she works thematically on a single thesis over a series of exhibition
s.
Craycroft has
had solo shows at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art
in Portland Oregon, the Blanton Museum of Art in
Austin Texas, Tracy Williams Ltd in NYC, Le Case del Arte in Milan Italy
, and a two-
persons
exhibition at Redcat Gallery in
Los Angeles, Sandroni Re
y in Los Angeles
and the Fundacio Miro in Barcelona
.
In November 2016, the artist debuted a major new commission,
The Earth Is a Magnet
, as part of the ICA Boston exhibition,
The
Artist’s Museum
. Notable group exhibitions include
Champs Elysees
at Palais de
Tokyo Paris, France, and PS1’s
Greater New
York 2005
. She
has also received commissions for public sculpture from Art in General, Socrates Sculpture Park NYC, Lower
Manhattan Cultural Center NYC, and from Den Haag Sculptuur, the Hague Netherlands.