You Are Here

Rona Pondick, American, born 1952, Treats, 1992, Plastic and rubber, dimensions vary, Gift of Ursula Hodell, 2005.219 © Rona Pondick

Contemporary Gallery
December 21, 2013 – August 31, 2014

Above: Rona Pondick, American, born 1952, Treats, 1992, Plastic and rubber, dimensions vary, Gift of Ursula Hodell, 2005.219 © Rona Pondick

"...a very impressive show, one that's willing to pour cool water on the simmering self-absorption and spitting sensationalism of the contemporary art world. It's a show worth seeing." - Sebastian Smee, The Boston Globe (read the full review)

Related Event

Artist Talk with Tory Fair

Thursday, August 21, 2014
6:00 PM-7:00 PM

Held in conjunction with the exhibition You are Here, Fair will discuss her work Full Length Mirror, and her other sculptural work. Free with Museum admission.

You are Here has been conceived around several contemporary artists whose art re-imagines the body and its boundaries. Incorporating a symbolic figurative presence as an alternative to the external appearance of a human figure – a traditional marker of our existence – these works locate the body through spaces, materials, sensations, and information that exist in relation to it (and to us).

Elements of architecture, altered apparel and jewelry define the body in terms of spaces and surfaces that surround it. Domestic objects (mirror, pistol, crowbar) translated as sculpture and photographs simulate physical encounters and mindful engagements of the body. Fragments (hand, teeth) acting as surrogates for a whole convey primal sensorial experiences of touch and need. Digitally converted DNA profiles extend the body's boundaries to beneath the skin.

Curator of Contemporary Art, Susan Stoops notes, “Formal strategies including dramatic scale shifts, the subversion of familiar materials, and the implied potential of movement of unfixed elements, not only challenge conventional ideas of the figurative in art but also propose an understanding of the body not as a biological constant but as a definable variable.”

Artists include Claire Barclay, Alice Channer, Tory Fair, Jim Lambie, Charles LeDray, Annette Lemieux, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Rona Pondick, Amanda Ross-Ho, Gary Schneider, Milagros de la Torre, and Gillian Wearing, among others.

This project is supported by the Don and Mary Melville Contemporary Art Fund

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Press

Media Alert
Worcester's 'You Are Here' captivates with contemporary art - The Boston Globe