Thunderstruck
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Ground Water; digital photograph on raw canvas, terra cotta, debris (sand, twig, rock, organic material) from around the cabin, HD video projection, dimensions variable, 2019 (Katherine Spinella) at Carnation Contemporary
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Ground Water; digital photograph on raw canvas, terra cotta, debris (sand, twig, rock, organic material) from around the cabin, HD video projection, dimensions variable, 2019 (Katherine Spinella) at Carnation Contemporary
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Walking the Perimeter; acrylic ink, photochromic solar pigment, UV flashlight, 26 x 40 inches, 2019 (Katherine Spinella in collaboration with Jessi DiTillio) at Carnation Contemporary
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Ground Water; digital photograph on raw canvas, terra cotta, debris (sand, twig, rock, organic material) from around the cabin, HD video projection, dimensions variable, 2019 (Katherine Spinella) at NARS Foundation
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(Detail) Ground Water; digital photograph on raw canvas, terra cotta, debris (sand, twig, rock, organic material) from around the cabin, HD video projection, dimensions variable, 2019 (Katherine Spinella)
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(Detail) Ground Water; digital photograph on raw canvas, terra cotta, debris (sand, twig, rock, organic material) from around the cabin, HD video projection, dimensions variable, 2019 (Katherine Spinella)
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Some Facts; polaroid, Fireball in shot glass, unfired clay impressions of the cabin deck (Jessi DiTillio with contributions by Katherine Spinella and John Whitten) / You and Not You; sound, 2019 (Jessi DiTillio, with readings by Rosana Aviña-Beam, Robert Collier Beam, Katherine Spinella, Michael E. Stephen, John Whitten)
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Walking the Perimeter; acrylic ink, photochromic solar pigment, UV flashlight, 26 x 40 inches, 2019 (Katherine Spinella in collaboration with Jessi DiTillio)
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Yelp Review; Inkjet Print and Vinyl, 16 x 32 inches, 2019 (Robert Beam and Rosana Aviña-Beam) at NARS Foundation
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Untitled (the invisible is real); seven framed objects under lenticular plexiglas: Red Scissors, Silver-plated cockroach, Framed High-school Yearbook photo of Robert Weathers, Embroidered Gucci® patch, Tarot of the Cat People (1985) card, Collected rocks from the four corners of the Lightning Field, Ancestral Puebloan and Mogollon pottery remnants (12th-14th century A.D.), each framed object (7 total) 22 x 17 x 3 inches (Michael E. Stephen)
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(Detail) Untitled (the invisible is real); seven framed objects under lenticular plexiglas: Red Scissors, Silver-plated cockroach, Framed High-school Yearbook photo of Robert Weathers, Embroidered Gucci® patch, Tarot of the Cat People (1985) card, Collected rocks from the four corners of the Lightning Field, Ancestral Puebloan and Mogollon pottery remnants (12th-14th century A.D.), each framed object (7 total) 22 x 17 x 3 inches (Michael E. Stephen)
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(Detail) Untitled (the invisible is real); seven framed objects under lenticular plexiglas: Red Scissors, Silver-plated cockroach, Framed High-school Yearbook photo of Robert Weathers, Embroidered Gucci® patch, Tarot of the Cat People (1985) card, Collected rocks from the four corners of the Lightning Field, Ancestral Puebloan and Mogollon pottery remnants (12th-14th century A.D.), each framed object (7 total) 22 x 17 x 3 inches (Michael E. Stephen)
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(Left to right) Cabin; graphite on black paper, 23 x 30 inches, 2019 and Satellite; graphite on black paper, 23 x 30 inches, 2019 (by John Whitten), Frank (pocket magick #1); Pulverized fulgurite (fossilized lightning) cast into a Monster in my Pocket (1989) collectible, 12 x 11 x 2 inches, 2019 and Walter; Dirt from the Lightning Field cast into a mercury dime (1935), 12 x 11 x 2 inches, 2019 (by Michael E. Stephen)
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(Middle) Serpent and the Rainbow; Western Diamondback Rattlesnake with silver-plated rattle, Hudson Bay Company wool blanket (1970’s), 5 x 3 x 3 feet, 2019 (Michael E. Stephen) (Photogram to right) Noma;16x20 (Framed 18 x 22) Silver Gelatin Photogram, 2018 (Robert Beam and Rosana Aviña-Beam) at NARS Foundation
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(Detail) Serpent and the Rainbow; Western Diamondback Rattlesnake with silver-plated rattle, Hudson Bay Company wool blanket (1970’s), 5 x 3 x 3 feet, 2019 (Michael E. Stephen)
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The exhibition is accompanied by a limited edition collaborative book. The book was designed by John Whitten, with a cover designed by Michael E. Stephen. Images contributed by Rosana Aviña-Beam, Robert Beam, Jessi DiTillio, Katherine Spinella, Michael E. Stephen, and John Whitten. Essay by Jessi DiTillio.
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The | | | Thunderstruck | | | Shop currently carries the book, shirt, and pin. See below for links and details.
Exhibited at NARS Foundation, Brooklyn, NY July 12-31, 2019
Exhibited at Carnation Contemporary, Portland, OR in September 7-29, 2019
This project began with a road trip to New Mexico from three different parts of the country, Oregon, Texas, and Pennsylvania. Meeting in the desert outside Albuquerque, we made our way to the Very Large Array, an astronomical marvel and epic material expression of the human desire to know the universe. Primed by this encounter to experience the earth as a small orb in a vast space, we picked up a pie from a small bakery and headed to the Dia Foundation office to embark on our journey to Walter de Maria’s 1977 work The Lightning Field.
Thunderstruck is the aftermath of that trip, a group of art works, collaborations, writing and collective feelings. Forty-one years after the completion of The Lighting Field, we wondered if land art was still relevant. What happens to land art in an age of environmental and political catastrophe? Questions of material, light, history, indigenous heritage, and embodiment suffuse these works in print, drawing, sound, sculpture, and installation. Thunderstruck re-presents The Lightning Field as an accumulation of meaning unfixed by time, floating free from De Maria’s authorial intention.
Curated by Jessi DiTillio
With works by Rosana Aviña-Beam, Robert Collier Beam, Katherine Spinella, Michael E. Stephen
and John Whitten
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The | | | Thunderstruck | | | books, shirts, and pins are currently all available for purchase at the Thunderstruck Shop www.jessiditillio.com/welcometotheshop
A portion of sales will support the traveling exhibition Thunderstruck, the remainder will be donated to the scholarship fund at the American Indian Institute of the Arts in New Mexico.
Beginning at the end of July the book will additionally be available at Printed Matter
* The exhibition is accompanied by a limited edition collaborative book. The book was designed by John Whitten, with a cover designed by Michael E. Stephen. Images contributed by Rosana Aviña-Beam, Robert Beam, Jessi DiTillio, Katherine Spinella, Michael E. Stephen, and John Whitten. Essay by Jessi DiTillio.
* * This project has been supported by grants from Regional Arts and Culture Council and Oregon State University Faculty Research Grant (John Whitten), The Ford Family Foundation and Oregon Arts Comission (Katherine Spinella)
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Photographic documentation by John Whitten