Installation by Patricia Boinest Potter
The Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston kicks off 2015 with the Patricia Boinest Potter’s exhibit, Patterns of Place. The opening reception is on Friday, January 23, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and will be open to the public and include refreshments and light hors d’oeuvres. The following day – Saturday, January 24 – there will be a gallery walkthrough with the artist at 2 p.m. There is also a curator-led walkthrough at 6 p.m. on Thursday, March 5. The exhibit will be on view until March 7, 2015.
WEBSITE: Find out more about the exhibit and the artist.
Offering technical experimentation, metaphoric expansiveness and curiosity, Patterns of Place does not look like any other art that has been made before, and includes a series of six three-dimensional maps that Potter calls Isomorphic Map Tables and 100 1:1 Map Insets, as well as an extensive catalogue and a video about the artist.
Close-up of one of Potter’s pieces
A Charleston, S.C., native, Potter has long lived in Anniston, Ala., where she has developed her own art-making techniques in relative isolation, informed by her extensive background in architecture. After graduating from the Savannah College of Art and Design, Potter earned her masters degree in architecture from the University of Art and Design, Helsinki, Finland. She has been a visiting professor of architecture at Auburn University, Iowa State University and Jacksonville State University. Her works have been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions around the world, including Paris, France; Richmond, Va.; Santa Fe, N.M.; Newton, Mass.; and New Orleans, La., to name a few.
After its debut at the Halsey Institute, Patterns of Place will travel throughout the country for several years. The delicacy and meticulous preplanning involved in the making of the Isomorphic Map Tables and 1:1 Map Insets give us a portrait of an artist concerned as much with process as with the mapping of patterns large and small. Potter says that the inception of this series came after studying the murmuration of starlings, one of nature’s most spectacular celestial visual displays. Mimicking the movements of its closest neighbors, each bird in the flock responds to microchanges in speed or direction. Thus, one bird’s movement amplifies and distorts the movement of all of those around it, demonstrating larger patterns created by infinitely varied smaller patterns.
Close-up of Mobius Migrations
Free and open to the public, the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at the College of Charleston is located on the corner of St. Philip and Calhoun streets and is open Monday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m. (with extended hours until 7 p.m. on Thursdays).
