Site-Specific Artwork
Most of the art created at Hambidge leaves with the Hambidge Fellows after they return home. However, a recent initiative is being developed to introduce temporary imaginative art works into the natural Hambidge landscape. These works respect all things Hambidge – history, environment, and creative excellence.
Hambidge Fellows, Stephanie Smith and Terri Dilling, of the Atlanta Printmakers Studio presented PrintSpin, an installation of screen-printed pinwheels displayed on the Hambidge lawn. During the Hambidge 2011 Summer Festival, the artists demonstrated the technique, and visitors tried their hand at screen-printing and made their own pinwheel. The PrintSpin project was conceived by Carol Pulin of the American Print Alliance as a print and paper project that takes a light-hearted look at wind energy, engaging the public by showcasing printmaking techniques and three-dimensional design.
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For the 2011 Summer Festival, Hambidge Fellow, Michael Radyk, presented four installations from a new series of woven wall pieces inspired by the lingering light and the sensorial moments found in nature, half-darkened rooms and the landscape in places. Two of the site-specific installations were originally executed during a Hambidge residency in May of 2010 and the other two are new works, using the Hambidge landscape and architecture as backdrops for these exquisitely woven textiles.
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Joseph Peragine presented a large inflatable sculpture during the 2011 Summer Festival. Breathing Tank is part of a body of work entitled Hell On Wheels (2003-06), which centered on the WWII era Sherman Tank. The earliest works in the series were watercolors done on location in Normandy, France. The body of work grew into a comprehensive investigation of the tank as an object, symbol and metaphor. Though outwardly menacing and powerful, the Sherman Tank proved to be inadequate in firepower and armor compared to its German counterparts. For those that occupied the tanks in battle it could become a deathtrap. This dichotomy, the contradiction between image and reality, power and impotence, is a thread that runs through all the work in this series. This particular piece presents the tank at full scale with guns at the ready. However, the timer that governs the airflow inflates and deflates the tank to simulate breathing, giving the work the look of a large brooding animal.
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Hambidge Fellow, Jennifer Van Winkle, built Peek, a site-specific installation, on the front lawn of Hambidge in conjunction with the Hambidge 2009 Summer Festival. Using wisteria, bamboo, privet and other local natural materials, she created a walk-in vessel inspired by animal architecture. The artwork also celebrated Mary Hambidge’s legacy of weaving. Festival visitors were encouraged to participate in completing the installation by adding the final elements to its structure, which remained in place for a full year.
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