Underline
January 6-31, 2023
Midway Gallery, Midway Artist Studios
15 Channel Center St, Boston, MA
Underline: to emphasize.
Inspired by their individual research and artistic practices, members of the Radius Collective created original work based on the observation of an underlying phenomenon. The responses, created through an interactive piece or process, seek to bring to focus these occurrences which often go unexamined in our daily lives.
1. James Barkley
2. Massimiliano Cerioni
3. Joshua Duttweiler
4. Christopher Field
5. Sarah Friedman
6. Molly Haig
7. Vaishnavi Kumar
8. Kristen Mallia
James Barkley
You’re Gonna Love Me
Analogue photography, 2022
Coney Island has been a New York phenomenon since the 19th century. This series aims to capture some of the energy, fun atmosphere and visual stimuli one is exposed to on a trip there. I believe it’s this special energy that comes from the mix of all walks of life there that draws people back, and has made it such an iconic playground that has withstood the test of time. No matter your age or where you come from, there’s something everyone can love at Coney Island.
Massimiliano Cerioni
Two Species Competition & Cooperation Model
Generative sound algorithm run on a webpage, 2022
This algorithm is a personal interpretation of the mathematical model known as Lotka-Volterra, which computes how two species striving for the same resources respectively affect their population number over years. Fluctuations of the two population numbers are used to generate sound in real-time. Their motion can occur in several forms: periodic patterns, quasi-periodicity, attractors, and chaos. Its fragile balance reflects how little changes in a simple ecosystem might escalate into macroscopic effects. Commissioned by Mike Rugnetta on behalf of Cycling’74 for the article 3 Explorations in Gen~ published in December 2022. Inspired by the work of Iannis Xenakis and Rob Hordijk. Javascript code deployment assisted by Martin Lundfall.
Joshua Duttweiler
Uptick
Two-channel video, 2022
The Port of Corpus Christi is the largest port in the United States in total revenue tonnage and is the largest crude oil export gateway in the nation. The passage of these large ships are awe-inspiring in both the scale of the vessels, the length of their journey to this small seaside community, and the potential negative impact of its’ cargo. In “Uptick”, the repurposed stock ticker explores, using data, the disconnect between the immense petrochemical imports arriving daily, negative climate impact, and economic disparity in the region.
Christopher Field
Showcase
4 color Risograph prints on French Madero Beach Speckletone Paper, 2022
“Showcase” re-contextualizes commercial photography excerpts from the year 1985 into a narrative grid of luxury, leering and longing. By cropping images, removing them from their intended consequence and printing them in a four color Risograph process, new affinities arise, rendered in a lurid palette of technicolor gaze. The perspective of the viewer and the subjects shifts from moment to moment, from look to look, male to female, female to male, gaze to gaze.
Sarah Friedman
Big Swatches
Wool, 2022
Knitting with a domestic, flat-bed knitting machine is an intricate, repetitive, and physically demanding process that provides a plethora of built-in constraints, and yet a great deal of creative freedom. These pieces are the result of work inspired by the intersection of knitting and typography—recognizing that changing the scale of an alphabet being used for knitting requires a redesign, essentially changing that alphabet’s resolution. This process is reminiscent of past practices creating analog typefaces, for example punchcutting.
Molly Haig
Speech/Pattern
Risograph posters, audio, 2022
What shapes our experience of a conversation? Underneath the words, timing can render a conversation inviting or exclusive, engaging or sluggish.
Do we speak simultaneously in enthusiastic support? Do we wait several seconds to jump in? This is subjective and heavily influenced by our cultural backgrounds. I find it both comforting and fascinating that our perceived emotional alignment or misalignment sometimes just comes down to expected pause length.
Speech/Pattern is a study of the pauses in a facetime call with my family—the source of my own cultural orientation around conversation timing.
Vaishnavi Kumar
“Water, water, everywhere”, الكويت
Photography, 2022
Life in Kuwait offers a consistent visual landscape: a spectrum of sepia tones, blue skies, shrubs, trees, and a seamless blend of modern and traditional architecture. With extremely hot summers (112°F on a good day), cool drinking water is vital. Residential streets are lined with a series of free drinking water coolers on every block — many installed by the Ministry, and some by residents. Often designed in unexpected ways, you’ll see water coolers mimicking traditional Kuwaiti architecture, shaped like giant water bottles or pots, or even as miniatures of Kuwait’s most popular landmarks. As odd and unexpected as they are, these water coolers are a significant, much-loved part of Kuwait’s daily landscape. What is oddly normal in your hometown’s daily surroundings? Make a rough sketch in this book!
Kristen Mallia
Geo/graphic (from Substratum)
Installation, 2022
Geo/graphic (from Substratum) is a body of work that investigates the place-based nature of memory-keeping, and the evolution and accumulation of behaviors and structures over time. The reconstruction of landscape through surface experimentation becomes a performance, with on-site photography, graphite iteration (on stone-based paper), and environmental processes informing a modified version of place. Landscapes, foundations, and even “home” become ever-shifting structures that are iterated, re-presented, and re-contextualized over time. The composting of organic household waste (April 2022–present), supported by comprehensive record-keeping, is displayed and packaged — organic media and daily ritual becomes artist-crafted substrate (soil as identity). Paper manufactured from calcium-carbonate reinforces the role of geological processes.