Tsunami
Camila Chaves Cortes
A 5-mural panel collage which plots the coast of Japan after the 2011 disaster.
Each panel is made with plastic, chip design boards, cars and boats made with numerical control machines, metal, copper, machine tool debris, screws, nuts, washers, bolts, wood, sawdust, metal dust, electronic copper paper, acrylics, oils, and watercolor.
April 12 – May 31, 2012
Opening reception: April 26, 5:00-7:00 pm
Artist Statement
On March 11 of 2011 an extremely powerful earthquake – with a magnitude of 8.9 – struck the northeast coast of Japan, triggering one of the worst catastrophes of our times. Both the earthquake and tsunami reduced towns to piles of rubble. Buildings, cars and ships were swept away by waves of water. The Japanese National Police Agency confirmed 15,850 deaths, 6,011 injuries and 3,287 people missing across eighteen prefectures, as well as over 125,000 buildings damaged or destroyed. The tsunami resulted in over 340,000 displaced people in the Tohoku region alone.
Most terrifyingly, the Fukushima Nuclear Plant declared a state of emergency due to excessive pressure in the plant, ongoing melt-downs and fear of nuclear radiation to the people living nearby. Furthermore, during the unfolding disaster Japan did not keep records of disaster management meetings. The government stated that it could take 40 years to clean up the disaster. These issues prompted me to question our practices in disaster management with “Tsunami”.
Daily we face major disasters. In March 2012, the American Midwest was struck by tornadoes. The threat of solar storms is now evident. The natural gas industry grows exponentially without regulation, disposing waste in foreign countries, increasing environmental damage. The humanitarian and economic impact of these major crises merits reflection on the ways of the management of disaster.
Enter your thoughts and ideas and the most voted entry wins a copy of the watercolor: http://camila.scripts.mit.edu/tsunami/
Camila Chaves Cortes is a photographer and painter of two of the 20th century’s largest urban renovations: Berlin, Germany (1994-2004) and Big Dig of Boston with its Zakim Bridge (1998-2011)
Bookish: Artist Books from the Collection of Rotch Library of Architecture and Planning, 1960-Present
Guest curator: Samuel Ray Jacobson
April 20-June 10, 2012
Executed in conjunction with the symposium “Unbound: Speculations on the Future of the Book,” Bookish explores the means and methods through which artist books challenge the book as traditionally conceived. By their selective, intentional performance and denial of normative aspects of book design – durability, flatness, narrative structure, boundedness, order, and pagination – these limited-edition, artist-conceived objects negate such norms while sustaining their worth and continuing relevance. At once a study in object interpellation and post-structural anti-essentialism, these 20 items selected from the Rotch Library Limited Access Collection push the limits of book form during a time when the viability of the book has come to seem increasingly untenable.
About the Guest Curator: Samuel Ray Jacobson (MIT SMArchS ’13, History Theory and Criticism of Architecture and Art) graduated with a BA in Architecture from Rice University in 2010.
for more information visit: “Unbound: Speculation on the Future of the Book”, May 3-4, 2012.
Upcoming Exhibit
Infinite Urban Landscapes: A Journey Through Cambridge, Massachusetts
Leah Brunetto
June 1-July 31, 2012
Arranged in chronological order, the painted urban landscapes in this collection trace the artist’s journey from her backyard to the edges of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Places such as public parks once felt physically infinite and natural in childhood, but are revealed as man-made and enclosed by the inorganic frameworks of the city. The level of fragmentation in each landscape increases along the timeline, reflecting the increased pace and complexity of life further away from home. These energetic forms lead to city exits such as highways, where one-point perspective reintroduces the notion of infinity.
While at first glance some of the featured landscapes appear natural, their artificiality is revealed by the geometries of elements such as fences, pavement, and bridges. The compositions were developed iteratively using digital photography and tracing to find the most dynamic forms and rhythms. Site photos were deconstructed literally into two different layers—inorganic and organic. The final images subtract the inorganic layers from the organic layers, resulting in a distinctly modern, urban aesthetic.
Leah Brunetto graduates from MIT this June. This exhibition is part of the thesis research project in completion of her Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree. She was jointly advised by faculty from the MIT Program in Art, Culture, and Technology and the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, both within MIT’s School of Architecture and Planning. Support for this exhibition was provided in part by a Director’s Grant from the MIT Council for the Arts.
For an interactive timeline, a video of the painting process, and more information about this project, visit the project website: leahbrunetto.com/landscapes
If you are interested in exhibiting in the gallery, please contact Jolene de Verges and Chris Donnelly.
Please see: Guidelines for Exhibitions in Rotch Library
