The Map and the Territory: an exhibition at Red Head Gallery by Ron Wild and Stephen Morris
7:00-9:00 p.m. at Red Head Gallery (opening reception)
Show runs: January 20 - 30, 2016
These works capture the world as a complicated, yet elegant series of natural, human and technological patterns and networks. The approaches are very different, almost opposite: Ron Wild’s geometrically laid assemblages deal with human, technological and social connections converging into medical practices, cultural phenomena, and scientific disciplines. Morris’ photographs explore nature’s patterned arrangements resulting from its steady and constant transformations, as well as events generated by human experiments and manipulations.
The association between these works and the terms named in the title of the exhibition, “map” and “territory” seems obvious. Wild’s regular lines and shapes make one think of maps and Morris’ meandering formations with their seemingly abstract appearance remind us of a pristine territory to be mapped. However, how can you squeeze these interpretations into established categories, especially when we contemplate them in the space of a gallery? What kind of interpretations, symbols and extrapolations do they evoke? In the end, aren’t they all mapping different territories? What happens when scientific subjects are relocated in an artistic context? And how can art generate or reveal scientific content? When is science art?
