Gerri Ondrizek | Transitions And Transformations: The Constant Flux Of Our Personal Structures

Transitions And Transformations: The Constant Flux Of Our Personal Structures

European Cultural Centre, Palazzo Bembo, Venice, Italy , 2019-24

Curator, Lucia Pedrana

Documentary of the Show

Video of the Symposium

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Geraldine Ondrizek, Reed College Alumni and Associates

This exhibition focuses on the internal and external forces that transform each of our ‘Personal Structures’. Each body of work presented takes an empathic look at the genetic, physical and psychological effects that our shifting reality has on us.

The work in the exhibition is documentary-based and made with/and/or by with those in transition, or showing the effects of transformations.

The exhibition is organized into three sections;

BIOLOGICAL FACTORS: works concerned with issues of genetics and epigenetics on our physical and psychological selves;

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS: works showing the effects of climate change on the landscape and human livelihoods;

SOCIO-POLITICAL FACTORS: works documenting and responding to forced immigration, indigenous identity and homelessness.

Situating Geraldine Ondrizek’s work documenting human gestation, The First 100 Hours on the back wall of the exhibition space, gives context to the other works. Ondrizek’s work chronicles the most important period of human genetic development .

The ability for all human life to survive and thrive in these first 100 hours depends on biological, environmental and socio-political factors. Our ’Personal Structures' are continually changed by our encounters with the elements, the air we breathe, the water we drink, the plants and animals surrounding us. These chance encounters both make and reform us. All the works in this exhibition make visible the often invisible or underrecognized circumstances that cause the transformation to our individual genetic structures.

This project is a collaboration with the network of artists, scientists, and socio-political activists, many of whom were students of Ondrizek who has taught at Reed College over the last twenty nine years. The artists represented in this exhibition are from diverse backgrounds and geographic locations. They are addressing pressing issues that have affected their personal lives. These works show not only difficult situations, but emphasize the metamorphosis and the resilience of living organisms and ecosystems.

PDF with Artists works

Part I: April 23 - July 25

Biological Factors

Geraldine Ondrizek, USA
The First 100 Hours
Artist book, silk panels and film made in collaboration with Shizuko Imai Takahashi (M.D. Ph.D, the University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Medicine, Department of Biomedical Ethics.)

Greta Fieweger, USA
I Hold Myself in My Arms
Artist book, cyanotype on textile

M Prull, USA
Metamorphosis: Forms 1-5
Xerox transfers and 22k gold leaf on paper

Environmental Factors

Ethan Rafal, Norway
The Evening Pink
Cheatgrass
The End
Artist book, prints, film and video

Socio-Political Factors – Forced Migration and the Homeless

Vikrant Kano, India
In Search of Home
Artist book, video

Jayeti Bhattacharya, India
Interference : Where Do We Belong
Artist book, drawings

Sai , Myanmar
Trails of Absence
Archival digital prints, video

Nili Yosha , USA
Last Dayz, 2021, Animal Control, 2021,
The Giving Tree, 2019, Warriors (It's a Wonderful Life) 2019, Hairapy, 2017
Films, Outside the Frame, A Film Collective for Homeless Youth

Part II: August 1 - November 27

Biological Factors

Environmental Factors

Genevieve G. Tremblay, USA
Fernanda X. Oyarzún, Chile
Tiempos de Muralismo
Artist books, ‘Literatura de Cordel’, video and Augmented Reality (AR). A collaboration between Fernanda X. Oyarzún, Alonso Salazar (Chile), Genevieve G. Tremblay, Nathan di Pietro (USA), Roberto Varas (USA) and the scientists of the Coastal Social-Ecological Millennium Institute (SECOS) and communities of fishing villages (Chile).

Sara Olivia Fuentes, Chile
Fernanda X. Oyarzún, Chile
Simbiosis: Mujeres Creadoras de Cordillera a Mar
Artist book, photographs and video. Artist book made in collaboration with Almacén Editorial and video made in collaboration with Roberto Varas.

Socio-Political Factors - Forced Migration And The Homeless

Stephanie Gervais, Brazil
Badr
Artist book, embroidered quilted blanket, sound recording

Barbara Tetenbaum, USA
Portland/Living
Artist book

Paulina Joy Poleyumptewa, Hopi
rez nullius:Indigenous Identity
Artist book, video

Lila Roo, St. Vincent And The Grenadines
New Roots
Video
Womb
Artist book and weaving

The European Cultural Centre (ECC) is proud to announce that the sixth edition of Personal Structures, the biennial contemporary art exhibition that invites artists and creative minds from across the world, will open in Venice, Italy, from the 23rd of April to the 27th of November, 2022, with press previews and opening events on the 21st and 22nd of April in all ECC locations.

The extensive exhibition will feature a wide selection of artworks from internationally-renowned and emerging artists, photographers, and sculptors, as well as showcase projects by worldwide academic institutions, all of which will be exhibited in the historical venues of Palazzo Bembo, Palazzo Mora and Marinaressa Gardens, located in the heart of the Venetian city.

This year, the exhibition will revolve around the idea of reflections, understood as both the image created from a mirrored surface as well as a thought, idea, or opinion formed from meditation. At Personal Structures, the theme of reflections will embody the dual meaning of, on the one hand, a visible episode perceived by the eyes; and, on the other, a mental deed stemming from the action of thinking and pondering with the mind. As envisioned by the ECC curatorial team, the act of reflecting carries the potential to foresee possibilities and the responsibility of imagining a better future.

A 3-D tour of the show (navigate to floor 2 room 12) (https://my.matterport.com/show/?m=KahizrL3Ljn )

We are in the catalog published for the show- “ Geraldine Ondrizek and Reed College”-pp 358

https://ecc-italy.eu/var/gallery/file/d7e14d3f24c8b32101f7f1538f0be83c.pdf

-Click on my name in the index and it will take you to the page-

Photo credit

ReportArch / Andrea Ferro Photography

ECC Press

https://ecc-italy.eu/exhibitions/2022artbiennial
https://ecc-italy.eu/press/pressrelease2022
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CcYNqS7v9Zz/

Geraldine Ondrizek, Nili Yosha, Jane Chin Davidson, and Barb Tetenbaum speak about the Venice exhibition, Transitions and Transformations Reunions 2023: