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For immediate release: February 12, 2003
Contact: Heather Mc.Monnies, Exhibitions Coordinator
Wood Turning Center: (215) 923-8000
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View the latest event schedule here in Adobe Acrobat 5. |
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THE WOOD TURNING CENTER ANNOUNCES
INTERNATIONAL TURNING EXCHANGE RESIDENTS
For 2003 and 2004
Slides available upon request
The Wood Turning Center is proud to announce the selection of participants of its 2003 and 2004 International Turning Exchange (ITE) Residency Fellows Program.
A signature annual event for the Center, the resident fellows will spend eight weeks working and living together during the summers of 2003 and 2004 at
the University of the Arts (UArts) in Philadelphia. This is the ninth and tenth consecutive years that the Center has offered this program. Every year four lathe artists, one photojournalist, one furniture maker/educator and one scholar from around the world are selected for participation.
The 2003 resident fellows are:
Eli Avisera, lathe artist from Israel;
Kevin Burrus, lathe artist from Portland, Oregon;
Mark Hancock, lathe artist from Wales;
Thierry Martenon, lathe artist from France;
Jamie Russell, furniture maker from Canada;
Ron Kanter, photojournalist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania;
Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley, Assistant Curator of American Decorative Arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The 2004 resident fellows are:
Matthew Harding, lathe artist from Australia;
Michael Mocho, lathe artist from Albuquerque, New Mexico;
Andrew Potocnik, lathe artist from Australia;
Marcus R. Tatton, lathe artist from Australia;
Joel Urruty, Furnituremaker/sculptor from Middletown, New York.
The scholar and the photojournalist for 2004 are to be announced.
In 2005, the Center will celebrate the first 10 anniversary of this one-of-a-kind residency program. In lieu of the regular residency, a special retrospective exhibition will be held in which all previous ITE'ers will participate. An accompanying publication, symposium, and an international tour are being planned.
ITE is supported in part by generous grants from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund, the William Penn Foundation, a private foundation, and Friends of the Wood Turning Center.
Short biographic information of 2003 ITE residents:
Eli Avisera was born and grew up in Jerusalem, Israel, where he continues to live with his wife and three children. A veteran teacher of woodturning and carving, Avisera spent 1995 and 1996 in the United States visiting and learning turning skills from renowned turners such as Rude Osolnik, David Ellsworth, Ray Key, and John Jordan. Among many woodworking methods, Avisera specializes in segment and inlay techniques. In terms of artistic propensity, the artist stresses, “I place great emphasis on design and aesthetics. As a teacher, I am very concerned with these two subjects and their influence on the finished product.” Avisera is ready to learn new techniques from other artists and apply them to his work in the residency.
Kevin Burrus has a BFA in wood from the Oregon College of Art and Craft. He describes his artistic concerns as, “My creative process is motivated by the pursuit and exploration of form, material, and environment. With that in mind most of my materials are post consumer paper and salvaged wood. The most important aspect of my work is the conceptual nature and content of the materials and the relationship it has to the final form.”
Mark Hancock has been turning wood for the past fourteen years. From employing simple design to bring out the natural beauty of the material, he now explores line and form in his design. As he stresses, “This has evolved to my recent work with hollow vessels based around a vase form with exaggerated rims which are partly cut away and shaped to give the piece a sense of movement. The inspiration for these came form the image of a falling drop of water. For these I’ve worked mainly in sycamore, attempting to use its subtle characteristics to complement the simple flow and elegance I attempt to achieve in the forms.”
A professionally trained cabinet maker, Thierry Martenon turned to woodturning with great passion in 1998. In addition to searching for the ultimate simple and purified form, the surface treatment has been Martenon's major concern of late. Various tools such as a blow torch or chainsaw and precise knowledge of techniques are employed to invoke the accents of light and darkness. Martenon is ready to share ideas and various techniques with his fellow residents to improve his work.
Jamie Russell uses lines to create sensual, often humourous forms complemented by the beauty of wood in his furniture. He also employs literal animal images in her work. His current endeavor is to "let the lines travel and interact as his eye suggests rather than forcing them into a pre-conceived literal shape." Rusell is expecting technique and aesthetic inspirations while interacting with his fellow residents.
Ron Kanter's films on art, education, and social issues have been seen nationally on PBS, CBS, and cable TV as well as internationally through French Television. During his career, Kanter has received many prestigious awards in broadcasting including two Emmy's, the Pennsylvania Associated Press Award, the American Film Festival Red Ribbon, the International Film & Television Festival of New York Gold Award, and the National Council for Educational Writing Broadcast Award. His goal in documenting the residency program is to create a film whose form is a reflection of its subject; to transform documentation through interpretation. As he says, "If the viewer responds to my subject rather than my film, I know I have succeeded."
Alexandra Alevizatos Kirtley gratuated from the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware with a master degree of arts. She is currently assistant curator in the American Decorative Arts Department at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As the resident fellow scholar of the ITE program, Kirtley plans to interview turners and learn about the trade directly from craftsmen as well as do documentary and archival research, which is part of her larger research on "turners as artisans in early 19th century Philadephia."
Short biographic information of 2004 ITE residents:
Matthew Harding is an established furniture designer/maker, wood carver and sculptor from Australia with twenty years experience working in wood and arts related fields. In anticipation of partaking in the residency, he says, "the ITE program would represent focus on hand and craft based skills such as carving and wood sculpting. The body of work I intend to make is figurative in nature. Figurative carving is a genre of art that has had little following in Australia. As a design educator and maker I enjoy critical discussion, discourse and analysis and feel that the interaction with other artists in the residency program would be most valuable in the development of this work as well as being relevant or beneficial to fellow artists."
Michael Mocho has been exploring turned forms for over twenty-six years while making a living as a furniture maker, woodworker, and instructor. Although he has worked on a variety of scales, much of his recent work involves smaller objects--mostly turned containers--presented within a context, such as a larger vessel or cabinet. Mocho is interested in the inferences/references that are possible by providing context for objects as well as creating forms that infer particular intentions. The artist believes these thematic explorations of "forms within forms" will fit well into the ITE residency and lend themselves to collaborative possibilities.
Andrew Potocnik is a practicing secondary school and adult education teacher who draws his inspiration in life from both the 6-year-old and the 70-year-old. Concerning his philosophy of wood, he says, "I challenge my own concepts and skills. Drawing on inspiration of other cultures re-interpreted within my own aesthetic vocabulary, I seek to learn from developments outside my own comfort zone, exploring skills, which enable me to convert the imagined into the real."
Marcus R. Tatton was brought up on a family farm, planting and tending trees for timer and plywood production. Beginning to carve wood at the age of ten, Tatton moved on to furniture design and limited drum production in the late 1980s. Tatton's own work became more sculptural while chainsawing over 600 drumshells inside and out. Tatton believes the content of his work and his woodworking techniques will benefit greatly from the residency.
Joel Urruty distorts the human figure in a stylized manner to evoke a mood and/or statement in his wood sculpture. The geometric forms present in his latest work help to create a contrast with the more fluid curves of the figures. Urruty seeks to gain more knowledge in the art of woodturning in order to open new doors and possibilities in his work. He says, "Working with artists with different aesthetic concerns can benefit the way I approach my own work and allow me to experiment with new ideas."
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