5/31: RECORDS ARE WRITTEN IN STONE // new works by RYAN THOMPSON

2014 May 26

by theacreproject

RECORDS ARE WRITTEN IN STONE
new work by RYAN THOMPSON
May 31 – June 22, 2014

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 31, 6-9pm
Open Hours: Wednesdays 4-8pm
& By Appointment

Lease Agreement
3718 Ellerslie Ave. Baltimore, MD

Records are Written in Stone

Science and belief are often positioned in a binary relationship. Conventional knowledge holds that their mutually agreed upon divergence speaks to two distinct and incompatible purposes in which science is housed in the empirical, whereas belief resides in the spiritual. Perhaps more significant than their differences, however, are their points of convergence: Science and belief both allow us to reach for meaning. In his solo exhibition, Records are Written in Stone, Ryan Thompson plays with this intermingling of science and belief in a series of deadpan explorations of geology, meteoritics, and crystallology. The conceptually-based photographic, sculptural, and drawing works simultaneously to legitimize and defraud our search for knowledge in order to call into question our understanding of the world by drawing our collective attention to how quickly this understanding can fall apart. In short, it is as though Thompson enters this work in a white lab coat but exits in the glow of the psychic’s neon sign.

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RYAN THOMPSON lives and works in Chicago, IL where he is an Associate Professor of Art & Design at Trinity Christian College. His current research examines various powers humans ascribe to geologic ephemera. His work has been exhibited at: Galerie Analix Forever (Geneva), EYEBEAM (New York), Links Hall (Chicago), Evanston Art Center (Chicago), Root Division (San Francisco), and Mila Kunstgalerie (Berlin). It has also appeared in: Making the Geologic Now (Punctum Books, 2013), Earth Works! (Format P Magazine, 2013), Reframing Photography (Routledge, 2010), and Cabinet Magazine (Summer 2014). His forthcoming book, Bad Luck, Hot Rocks (The Ice Plant, 2014), brings together original photographs of stolen and returned petrified wood, with conscience letters from the National Park’s archives.

More information about Ryan Thompson can be found at departmentofnaturalhistory.com

LEASE AGREEMENT is a collaborative curatorial project by artists Adam Farcus and Allison Yasukawa. Set in the living room of the couple’s rental house, Lease Agreement continues in the tradition of apartment gallery exhibition spaces by exhibiting conceptually rigorous, engaging work within the context of a home. Located in the Waverly neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, Lease Agreement has operated out of the collaborator’s row-house since October 2012.

More information about Lease Agreement can be found at leaseagreementbaltimore.blogspot.com