press release november 2011
(< Return to Press Releases)CSMA's Mohr Gallery Presents To Great Lengths: Installations by Esther Traugot
Opening reception with artist on Friday, December 9, 6-8 pm
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center in Mountain View presents To Great Lengths, Installations by Esther Traugot. The exhibition will be in CSMA’s Mohr Gallery from December 9, 2011-January 22, 2012, with an opening reception with the artist on Friday, December 9, 6-8 pm.
Through the media of painting, sculpture and installation, Traugot’s work investigates a personal connection with the natural world. This interdisciplinary approach allows her to create works that play between seeing oneself as an intrinsic part of the natural landscape, as well as an observer of it.
She is interested in seeds, sticks and trees not only as objects, but also in the space they occupy as environments or fantasy landscapes. Traugot covers natural objects with crocheted threads in an attempt to “prop up” or “put back” what has been abandoned or broken. As bandage or cozy, these support structures investigate the relationship between nurturing and controlling nature.
The Mohr Gallery exhibition will include a crochet-covered branch of approximately three inches in length to crochet-covered trees from 9 to 11 feet in height. “The meticulous act of crocheting mimics the instinct to nurture and protect what is viable, what is becoming precious,” says the artist. “As in gilding, these false ‘skins’ imbue the objects with an assumed desirability or value; the wrapping becomes an act of veneration.”
Although futile in its attempt at archiving and preservation, to Traugot, “it suggests optimism.” Her interest in the objects extends from the notion of landscape and how we not only experience, but also negotiate with the natural world.
Traugot has an MFA (Studio Art) from Mills College and a BFA (Painting) from UC Berkeley. Her award-winning work has been widely exhibited throughout the Bay Area.
The Community School of Music and Arts (CSMA) at Finn Center is committed to providing Arts for All, regardless of age, level, background or economic means. The non-profit, founded in 1968, reaches 40,000+ people annually providing classes, lessons, camps, in-school programs (Art4Schools, Music4Schools), concerts, exhibitions, lectures and free community events. In Jan 2004, CSMA opened Finn Center, Silicon Valley’s first-ever center for music and arts education and the school’s first permanent home since its founding in 1968. CSMA is among the top 10 schools of its kind in the US and the largest non-profit provider of arts education in the region.
CSMA’s Mohr Gallery is located at Finn Center, 230 San Antonio Circle, Mountain View, and is open Mon-Fri, 9 am-7 pm and Sat, 9 am-3 pm. The Friday, December 9 exhibition opening reception (6-8 pm) with artist Esther Traugot is free and open to the public. Information: see www.arts4all.org or call 650-917-6800, ext. 306.