Barry Bytes eMagazine

4TH ISSUE | APRIL 2021

Jennifer An gus, F loriog raph y,

4TH ISSUE WINTER 2021

202 0

DIRECTOR'S FOREWARD

Welcome to the fourth volume of Barry Bytes, our digital eMagazine packed with insights from our team, interviews, new exhibitions, collection highlights, and more. As the first publication of 2021, it feels like a page has turned. As a society, the vaccine is out and we are hopeful for what this will bring — can we be together once again? To mark one year of quarantine, we are opening Pandemic, a small exhibition that recontextualizes and reflects the effects on the human condition.

As a Museum, we launched our second changing exhibition, Orchids: Attraction and Deception. This show quadrupled our attendance since our reopening in September — while maintaining safe and relaxing conditions to commune with art. I am excited to share this video of our VIP tour of the show, featuring the voices of the exhibition advisory board. In conjunction with Orchids, we offered free in-person private tours for the month of February and are continuing our multimedia tours that have already reached over 150 attendees.

We also created a new 3D virtual tour of our so that they can be experienced from the comfort of your home at anytime! Using augmented reality, these tours offer detailed videos, headshots, bios, and artist statements.

In February we celebrated Black History Month by elevating the voices and works of Black artists in our collection. Our education team applied new technologies and launched an interactive, Multimedia experience featuring the Black Artists and Subjects represented at the Barry Art Museum. The Urban League of Hampton Roads recognized Museum cofounder Dick Barry at this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Leaders event for his impact and philanthropy. Mr. Barry graciously used this platform to draw attention to our growing collection of works by Black artists and our efforts to celebrate the artists' personal stories of history, heritage, and inspiration- while shaping new narratives through the artistic interpretations on view.

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 1

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

Through March, we joined the National Museum of Women in the Arts, in support of their #5womenartists challenge to spark a global conversation about gender equity in the arts, and turn the focus to yet another traditionally underrepresented demographic within museums and galleries.

There is much work still to do to as we establish our position in the art world — and our voice on campus, and in our community. With this in mind, we are actively investing in our collection and works on view to support a diverse representation of living, contemporary artists. We can be leaders in a new and transformational era for museum collecting, that has space for a multitude of voices, advancing togethering.

Looking forward to the fall of 2021 — we are over the moon to announce two remarkable exhibitions that both circulate around the Nocturnal. Mark your calendars and let’s get ready to celebrate — together once again!

ORCHIDS: Attraction & Deception

ARTIST INTERVIEW with Calista Lyon & Brett Day Windham

NEW: Multimedia Tours UPCOMING PROGRAMS: Cross-Pollination Lecture Series & Art-Inspired Yoga

MEET THE TEAM

Fondly,

Sherelle Rogers Sara Fernandez

BECOME A MEMBER

CHARLOTTE POTTER KASIC Interim Executive Director

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 2

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

ON VIEW! CURATORS’ LETTER BARRY ART MUSEUM

ORCHIDS: ATTRACTION & DECEPTION

"The world is so huge that people are always getting lost in it. There are too many ideas and things and people, too many directions to go. I was starting to believe that the reason it matters to care passionately about something is that it whittles the world down to a more manageable size. It makes the world seem not huge and empty but full of possibility."

Susan Orlean, The Orchid Thief

February 4 - August 1, 2021 Almost a year ago, amid the new realities of Covid-19, quarantine, and general uncertainty, we began to plan this exhibition. We scoured the websites of artists we loved, rejoiced in the number of contemporary artists working with botanicals, talked about the potential for work made just for the show, and dove in. In the midst of an increasingly chaotic world, we had the great luck to focus on this project. We found that we cared passionately (to borrow Ms. Orlean’s phrase) about orchids, and it did make the world feel more manageable.

POSTMODERN PAINTING. Stella alternately paints in oil and watercolor

We met by phone, text, and video call to conduct our artist and orchid research.

Our children jumped into our calls, we created workarounds for our new virtual realities and went on an incredible journey.

Images:Jennifer Angus, Floriography, 2021; Calista Lyon, Interspecies Intimacies, 2019; Photos by John Wadsworth Photography

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

From enthusiastic zoom conversations with botanists to virtual studio visits with artists, we pieced together the recipe for a show about colonialism, botany, visual splendor, and imagination.

We are honored that quite a few artists did make new works just for the exhibit, which is a tall order during even the most ordinary times, let alone a global Pandemic.

Many of them reported back that they, too, were surprised at how drawn in they became how engaged with the fertile history of the orchid, and their own interpretations of the plant. They dealt with canceled shows, virtual workshops, and delayed residencies, but still found a way to fill our gallery with their spectacular work. We had the Oak Spring Garden Foundation as an incredible partner, lending us historical illustrations which provide an invaluable sense of perspective to the contemporary works.They also worked hand in hand with the esteemed botanists at the Kaplan Conservatory to find images that illuminate some of our native Virginia orchid specimens.

Images: (above) Jennifer Angus, Floriography, 2020; (right) Natalja Kent, photo of "Oncidium tigrinum" Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models, Harvard University Herbaria/Harvard Museum of Natural History © President and Fellows of Harvard College

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 4

As the show really took shape, we laid out the floor plan and realized that a traditional exhibition structure wouldn’t work with these ingredients: rather than organize the artworks by date, medium, or concept, we decided to focus on relationships. We played with the ways that different works of art held space together and how they played off of each other. We POSTMODERN PAINTING. Stella alternately paints in contemplated their sense of time and oil and watercolor space, color and light, and considered surprise and delight just as much as ideas or materials.

As longtime friends and collaborators, we communicate in shorthand and have immense respect for each other's work, and we were thrilled to have this labor of love carry us through a difficult year. It was a joy to bring this exhibition to life, we hope it shows.

EXHIBITION COLLABORATORS: Charlotte Potter Kasic Brett Day Windham

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: BRETT DAY WINDHAM INTERVIEWS CALISTA LYON

BDW: With your analytic mind and poetic interest in the relationship between humans and nature (if you will permit such a problematic binary - maybe human and non-human world works better, to borrow your phrase), it seems like you could have pursued many different fields of study—what made art the vehicle for your curiosity? Has art always been your first passion?

CL: Yes, the binaries we have inherited are endlessly problematic and inadequate. I am always trying to think through and find ways that don’t replicate that divide, and instead draw us together, as we are in life—in an ecological sense.

As a young kid on a farm, there was a lot of free time. I would rummage around in my Dad’s workshop, go through the scrap pile, find old paint, wood, mirror, tin, and assemble them. I never thought of it as being something I could pursue; it was just something that I needed to do.

While I didn’t know it at the time, the work was a way to hold my questions, questions that continue in my practice today. It wasn’t until much later in life that I was exposed to examples of how you can make a life as an artist. An artist’s practice offers you a kind of freedom that few other fields can. What field of study allows you to investigate any subject matter, via any form?

BDW: I am always attracted to artists who adopt whatever discipline necessary to express their ideas, and you have such a wide-ranging practice. Can you talk a little bit about how a piece develops - how does the form follow the concept?

CL: My work starts with a series of questions that are connected to a larger problem or series of complex problems—it might be a challenge for a rural community to build a social fabric or translating the complexity of a changing ecology to an audience. At the center of my work is a desire to understand why and how we live the way we do, and how we might imagine divergent ways of living. I often work with archives or create my own—a plant hunters journal, an amateur botanist’s orchid collection, the ways a rural community waves to each other—these are my working materials. I then try to learn as much as I can about this material and their histories and how they are connected to my questions and the problem at hand. I use these materials to share an idea or story that counters dominant narratives. I make work to learn and create conversations about things I don’t see centered or discussed broadly in my community or culture.

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 5

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

BDW: Could you tell me about the process of building the interspecies intimacies sculptures? They strike such a wonderful balance between contemporary sculpture and historical paper maché botanical models (which predated and necessitated the Blauschka’s glass models, referenced in the exhibition through Natalja Kent’s photographs from Harvard). I also get a (possibly inherent) pathos and sense of humor. Was that intentional?

CL: The creatures were modeled very closely on the botanical drawings of orchids created by an amateur botanist and self-described recluse who lived in my family’s farming community. Philip Branwhite spent thirty years searching for and documenting native orchids across Australia. His drawings were not created from a professional drawing practice, he was an amateur. I too am an amateur in working with clay. I think it is important to understand the word amateur in its beginnings, meaning “one who loves” or “to love.” These tiny elements of Phil’s drawings in and of themselves embodied the mystery and play that, to me, reflected Phil’s relationship with these plants. So yes, I never wanted these creatures to be technically perfect, I wanted them to carry the lines of Phil’s hands and the marks of my fingers, the imperfections of doing something for the love of it, not because you are necessarily good at it. I was also pulled to these drawings because they offered me the time to understand the way other species shape the life of an orchid, from the very possibility of their life to their form, color, and smell. The interspecies relations that took place between Phil, orchids, mycorrhizal fungi, and pollinators embodied a lesson that is deeply important if we are to build worlds that will challenge the human individualism we wake up to daily.

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 6

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT Brett Day Windham interviews Calista Lyon

BDW: I was so glad that you recommended Gary Nabhan's book Cross Pollinations as part of our research for the exhibition. It is surprisingly accessible and beautiful. You seem like kindred spirits. How has it influenced you?

CL: I remember reading CrossPollinations: The Marriage of Science and Poetry and believing wholeheartedly in the ethic of this work. Writing like Nabhan’s has helped me find the language for what I was doing in my own practice. His example of the limitations of science and the depth of Indigenous ecological knowledge offered by the O’odham peoples is a critical lesson in how we must draw from many forms of knowledge to build our understanding of ecological frameworks, and how artists can support this work by making accessible different forms of knowledge.

Thank you so much, Calista!

It’s been such a pleasure learning about your practice!

-BRETT DAY WINDHAM Images: (below and previous pages) Calista Lyon, interspecies intimacies, 2019

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 7

contemporary artists

ART

botanical experts

SCIENCE

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF CALISTA LYON? Neither can we! Listen in to our recent lecture featuring Sir Peter Crane and Calista Lyon

VIEW LECTURE

COLLECTION H I G H L I G H T The need to make things come to life has been a goal of the creative and imaginative throughout antiquity.

The creation of automata was a step in the direction of bringing life to the inanimate.

Automata, being mechanical devices moving in human-like form. The root word derives from the Greek term “Automotos” meaning self-willed.

These rare pieces of complex machinery were a way to show one’s mechanical intuitiveness by mimicking the real world through machinery.

These early forms of robots hold a special part in a world that has become so technologically centered.

The Barry Art Museum houses fourteen of these exquisitely crafted pieces of art. Many of the pieces derive from the late 19th century. In this period, automata had become mostly used for entertainment purposes.

SHERELLE RODGERS Past Barry Art Museum Intern, Current Graduate Researcher Master’s Candidate at George Mason University

Images: (left) Léopold Lambert, Girl in Theatrical Costume, ca. 1890, (above) Gustave Vichy, Seated Lady at her Piano, ca. 1878

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 8

Léopold Lambert and Gustave Vichy are two heavily featured artists in this category of the doll collection.

Vichy, in his career, would focus on the musically based automata, bringing in music boxes to submerge one's senses into the total experience.

Vichy is known for taking part in every step of doll production from mechanics to fashion. Lambert would become the senior supervisor in production under Vichy before later opening his own business. Lambert became an exceedingly popular doll creator.

Unfortunately, by the end of their careers automata had fallen out of fashion due to the development of electrical trinkets. A beautiful example of Vichy's work is that of Seated Lady at her Piano who has a music box hidden in her piano that plays four different songs. In reflection, Léopold Lambert's Girl in Theatrical Costume, whose music box is hidden in the base of her stand is telling of Vichy's influence.

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

ANNOUNCING!

PANDEMIC REFLECTING ON A YEAR IN QUARANTINE

April 1 - June 1, 2021 With the new exhibition, Pandemic the Barry Art Museum presents a selection of artworks that speak to the Covid-19 era; to our current human condition. We have all experienced the past year in our own way: isolation, uncertainty, anxiety, loneliness, confinement, illness, mourning. The role of the artist, at its best, can be to dig deep, to research, and to translate our human condition into metaphor and transcendence.

JANESSA CLARK PETER EUDENBACH LUKE JERRAM JULIA AND ROBIN ROGERS ANNE NEELY ...are all practiced at doing just this.

Focusing on such diverse themes as microbiology, environmentalism, human connection, and macro/microcosmos, their work in our exhibition probes and reflects our shared experiences to make the deeply personal feel universal (and vice versa). Whether these works were made before or after the arrival of the novel coronavirus, they serve to remind us of the essential nature of the arts to recognize, uplift, and inspire our everyday life. Many of these artists have ties to Old Dominion University, and we are proud to present their works here as both a marker and a salve for our time under quarantine.

Images: Janessa Clark, Communion, 2020; Peter Eudenbach, Untitled/Sputnik, 1999

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 9

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

ANNOUNCING!

KAREN LAMONTE: September 9, 2021 January 2, 2022 For our third changing exhibition, the Barry Art Museum is proud to present a solo show of works by Karen LaMonte, September 9, 2021, through January 2, 2022.

LaMonte is an acclaimed American sculptor living and working in Prague.

Image: Karen LaMonte, Étude 12, 2016

By freezing a single gesture from a body both clothed and in motion, LaMonte is able to investigate themes of memory, beauty, and loss. A master craftsperson, LaMonte has pioneered complex casting methods across diverse media. At the Barry Art Museum, we will set the stage with a selection of her astonishing works in cast glass, iron, and bronze.

This exhibition positions works from LaMonte’s significant sculptural oeuvre in the context of the theater in times of war and upheaval.

LaMonte found inspiration in the historical fashion mannequins of Théâtre de la Mode, and here we pay homage to that connection by positioning her work in that performative context. Selections from both her musically referenced Nocturnes series and accompanying Études (one-third scale studies) are presented in the gallery, alongside couture fashion dolls that tell the story of these miniature ambassadors or Pandora Dolls through the ages.

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 10

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

ANNOUNCING!

LUKE JERRAM: THE MUSEUM OF THE MOON

The moon is a vessel for our collective imagination, our space dreams. Our ever-changing orb represents both darkness and enlightenment; a perfect metaphor for duality. With an incredibly slow turning radius, she always shows us the same face, and has been used throughout the ages as a timekeeper, a calendar, and a source of light in nighttime navigation. Here in Hampton Roads, our king tides and frequent flooding directly influence our relationship to the moon, and to our concerns for global warming. Our proximity to NASA Langley keeps our region's contributions to lunar research and the legendary Apollo Moonwalk at the forefront of all our minds. All over the world, the moon inspires artists, poets, and philosophers along with scientists, and connects us all with its light.

Museum of the Moon is a large-scale touring installation by British artist Luke Jerram. The inflated moon is internally lit and features detailed NASA imagery of the lunar surface. Twenty-three feet in diameter and highly detailed, the Moon was built to an approximate ratio of 1:500,000. Jerram was initially inspired by the vastly changing tides as he bicycled over the Avon River each day in the UK. This observation led to extensive research and eventually a high-resolution image of the moon created by the Astrogeology Science Center in Arizona.

Accompanying the installation is a musical composition by award-winning composer Dan Jones.

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 11

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

To date, the artwork has been presented in more than 30 countries and experienced by over 10 million viewers. People everywhere have their own distinct relationship to the moon, and yet it connects us all. Appropriately, each community that presents the Museum of the Moon is invited to create its own programming to accompany the experience.

THIS FALL, THE MOON WILL BE IN ORBIT RIGHT HERE IN NORFOLK AS WE CLOSE DOWN 43RD STREET FOR A 3-DAY, OUTDOOR POP-UP EXHIBITION!

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 12

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

FREE!

PUBLIC PROGRAMS A series of conversations between contemporary artists featured in the Orchids: Attraction and Deception exhibition at the Barry Art Museum and botanical experts in the field.

First Thursday of each month at 6:00 PM EST.

contemporary artists

ART

botanical experts

SCIENCE

Brought to you in partnership with the ODU Office of Community Engagement and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation.

MAY

BRENDAN BAYLOR & DR. PETER WYSE JACKSON Thursday | May 6 | 6:00 PM | Virtual Lecture

6 REGISTER

JUNE

3 REGISTER

JULY

1 REGISTER

One of the world’s foremost and best-known botanists and plant conservationists Dr. Peter Wyse Jackson discusses the effects of colonization and the impact we are able to see today as well as how we, as a species, have worked to conserve the environment around us, with Interdisciplinary artist Brendan Baylor.

JENNIFER ANGUS & DR. KEN CAMERON Thursday | June 3 | 6:00 PM | Virtual Lecture

Jennifer Angus’s work uses patterns and insects to create beautiful designs while Dr. Cameron dedicates his time to orchid research, especially focused on understanding the cultural significance and fundamental biology of Vanilla – the ice cream orchid. Together they will discuss the ways they are inspired by orchids as well as the stories they are able to tell.

DEBORA MOORE & JENNIFER BROWN Thursday | July 1 | 6:00 PM | Virtual Lecture

Our final event in the Cross-Pollination lecture series will be between glass artist Debora Moore and Jennifer Brown, the Collection Manager for the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants at Harvard University. They will be coming together to talk about their appreciation for the orchid flower and the way that artists are able to display that appreciation through glass.

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 13

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

ART-INSPIRED YOGA | A new episode is released every other Wednesday ART-INSPIRED YOGA In this 30-minute yoga class you will be led through a series of poses, inspired by the art in the Barry Art Museum collection. Each class has a specific theme derived from the artworks, so come back to explore different threads and ideas that resonate throughout the galleries. These pre-recorded lessons are instructed by Rise & Shine Yoga with Leah Villanueva Viray.

Full archive of FREE classes

MULTIMEDIA TOURS: We invite your group of 10 or more to join us on Zoom for a guided, 45-minute tour with the Museum’s Artist Educators. From the comfort of your screen, you can enjoy an up-close-and-personal view of the collection with our NEW multimedia tours. Join Artist’s/Eductor’s Suzy Peterson & Kim McKinnis as they share stories and in-depth information about the works in the collection and the people behind the piece.

Tour Themes include:

Highlights: 12 Objects that Highlight our Permanent Collection Black Artists and Subjects Orchids: Attraction & Deception Our tours are especially appropriate for school groups & recreation groups, but could also be a great option for something to do during virtual gatherings!

See you online!

Tours are offered: Monday-Thursday 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Friday 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

SCHEDULE A TOUR

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

STAFF HIGHLIGHT

We are pleased to share the appointment of Sara Fernandez in the new Graduate Assistantship position at the Barry Art Museum.

Sara is a Spanish-speaking Virginia Beach native, who has experience working in the US Navy as a Reservist, as a library-aide at the Norfolk Public Libraries and as a Customer Service Advisor at iFly VA Beach.

Sara is pursuing their Master’s in Humanities with a focus on Women and Gender studies. They hold a Bachelor’s in English from ODU with an emphasis in Journalism.

During their time as an undergraduate student they were a contributing writer for the Mace & Crown, a member of the Monarch Marching Band, and a member of ODU Out. Sara currently dedicates their off time to volunteering with RAINN as a Victim Advocate for their crisis line.

In this new position, Sara’s role is to promote education and outreach.

They have leveraged their academic experience and proven knowledge of customer service to help grow our student Gallery Host Program and conceptualize/produce online events.

Sara supports the outward face of our institution by welcoming guests at the front desk and keeping our growing online presence up to date. Sara has vast interests and experience and is bringing excellent energy and ideas to the Barry Team.

WELCOME ABOARD!

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 15

baryartmuseum.odu.edu

JOIN AND TAKE PART MEMBER SUPPORT is a vote of confidence in our collections and

MUSEUM MISSION. Members are at the core of the Museum’s community, and receive access to invaluable perks and benefits, like private tours, VIP invites and tickets, and behind the scenes peeks at at our exhibitions. @JENNYFROMTHEBLOCK_OF_CHEESE

Come join us, knowing your support is critical to the growth of the Barry Art Museum and its goals as a creative gathering place and innovative educational resource.

Membership levels start at $50 for an individual.

JOIN TODAY! @agraycorp

ARE YOU AN ODU STUDENT? Activate your FREE Museum Membership by registering at barryartmuseum.odu.edu/membership

BARRY BYTES eMAGAZINE | 16