Featuring the work of:

Juniper Perlis
Nicole Ardent
Lynda Banzi
Susannah Lawrence
Charlie Coolidge
Jessica Finch
Samantha Fields

Fresh Produce presents the work of Fritz Buehner



Kitchen by Lynda Banzi

Vessels Group 8 by Susannah Lawrence

Time Out by Charlie Coolidge

Not Just a House
Curated by Samantha Fields

Dec 9 2005 - Jan 14 2006
Opening Reception: Dec 9, 5-8pm

Performance, Gallery Talk, Holiday Party: Dec 18, 5-8pm

Looking at the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries use of the word "uncanny," there is an overwhelming connection to the interior spaces of the home.  The uncanny is described as "neither absolute terror nor mild dread," but a lurking sense of unease.  Within the phenomenon of the uncanny, the German word unheimlich, meaning, "not at home, can be found.  Unheimlichs definition can be approached through that of its opposite, heimlich, allowing a connection to be made between the two words, one being found within the other.  Heimlich--belonging to the house or family--is associated with the familiar, the comfortable, the security, privacy and concealment connected with the home. The house with its inhabitants is in constant flux of revealing and concealing.  It is a shifting place of comfort and discomfort, of order and disorder.  The house/home has long been a sight for investigation; it is a place of desires (often unfulfilled), a place of comfort and safety and a place of overt and subversive power.  The house has taken on the role of mirror, and holds the residue of family history.  It is in this space--the slip between Heimlich and the unheimlich--that the examination of the dichotomy of functional and dysfunctional can take place.  It is this space that that interests the artists in the exhibition, Not just a house

Juniper Perlis, in her "Father Photographs" is in a dialogue with fantasy and reality, between what is wanted and what may exist. Nicole Ardent examines the power structures within the relationship in the home, in her video, "and the sense of coldness detaches".Objects within the home are the residue of our daily existence, which is often hidden from others outside of an intimate circle, Lynda Banzi, is exploring these objects in her color photographs. Susana Laurence is playing with the space lying between what is functional land dysfunctional with in the home, using the image everyday useful objects and transforming them into beautiful ceramics that no longer have a use function. Charlie Coolidge is using the act of deconstructing and reconstructing pieces of the home, playing with ability for these things to mutate. Samantha Fields examines the ablity of the home to conceal it’s occupants and objects.Each of these artists’ works raises questions surrounding the ideas of the blissful home, exposing what is desired and what is attained.

Detail of Threshold by Samantha Fields