Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Mary Bergs, Further Notes on Place and Space, Collaged Papers and Stones, Edgewood College Gallery, Edgewood College, Madison, 2022


A sharp installation in which Bergs' large-scale accordion collage sits perfectly within the elongated display cases leading to the Edgewood College Gallery. Using found materials and "self-made" materials, Bergs creates ephemeral looking collage works that come from a careful awareness of her surroundings and from an appreciation of the beauty to be found in our everyday lives. Below is the artist's statement that accompanies this piece:

"This accordion fold book and accompanying stones are a further investigation into my interest in memory, visual perception and our experience of place. When I first looked at the display case, I immediately thought of a horizon line: a story and these related lines developed into a book project. A horizon line introduces the idea of landscape, memories of places and a sensate experience of place. Images of landscape are often idealized versions of reality that we accept as truth, never questioning how these images impact our perception of our own experience. I am interested in creating situations where non-specific ideas merge, a place where two or more ideas come together to form a relationship, a possibility, a new association. My work explores the linguistic properties of materials and objects, and things that can function as language and be read by the viewer. I invite careful looking at forms and materials where spatial arrangement and changes in texture generate new meanings. I investigate the place where language and objects coincide."

A longtime resident of Minneapolis, Bergs now lives somewhere "in the middle" of Wisconsin with her husband at the edge of the village of Benton.










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