May 7 - May 15 2016

Jennifer Moller | Malin Bengtsson

Opening: Saturday, May 7, 2 pm.

This exhibition is in conjunction with, and in celebration of APPEARANCES: Green Arts Festival Provincetown.

Jennifer Moller

Dreaming at the Edge, video + photographs

“These pools were formed at the end of the last ice age, approximately 14,000 – 17,000 years ago as the Laurentide ice shelf retreated and left behind kettle holes to be later filled by rising tides and ground water.

The high tide can rise from sea level (0.0) up to 12.4’ over the course of six hours, and then drain away to sea level again over another six hours. Moon gravity creates the high tides, as water pulls away from the earth toward the moon. On ground, I watch a terrapin turtle emerge from the mud and ancient horseshoe crabs mate on low tide flats in spring. No matter what time of year the sound of the marsh is marked by the high piercing call of the marsh hawk.

I set the camera to film a time-lapse in six-hour intervals as I walk the marsh; in winter I see many dolphin corpses and seagulls too. Their forms are clearly visible, a break of the flat horizon line, mounds of flesh later to be taken by tides, claws and hungry beaks.

The pools are a place of incubation and feeding, a mighty plenitude of nourishment, providing for new life. I watch a fox in fall, easily camouflaged under an overcast sky, searching for food in the rusty marsh grasses. In the summer and early spring, I see mussels lodged into the inner perimeter of the pools’ walls. Salt water is heavier than fresh water and sinks to the bottom. So I am looking through two lenses, the fresh water lens reveals a multitude of life beneath - microscopic organisms, spawning fish, snails, and crabs.

My camera is a tool for marking time and five years is a short period in the lives of ancient kettle holes. I am watching this natural interconnectedness and taking it for evidence of how the spiritual world permeates the mundane. The dynamic weather and moving tides contrast with these persistent forms, and this beautiful interplay has moved me to record these pools over the course of many years.”

Jennifer Moller is an interdisciplinary artist and lives, works and teaches in both traditional and digital mediums. Her early interest in drawing continues to inspire to this day. While working for hire as a photographer and videographer, she has continued to develop personal imagery and exhibit drawing, and media work. She also has created community-based artwork involving installation, video projection and public participation. Her video installation work “seas” is in the permanent collection of the Hood Museum at Dartmouth University.

After graduating from Maine College of Art in 2003 in studio arts, Moller started teaching as an adjunct professor at the Art Institute of Boston. There she taught in three departments: Illustration, Animation and Foundation. Working as an arts educator, Moller has been able to share her knowledge, including the creative use of digital tools, illustration concepts, and photographic strategies.

Moller has received awards for her work including the press women photography award and an MCC grant in film and video in 2005, and Wellfleet Cultural Council grant in 2014. Other notable honors include an invitation to teach as an Artist in Residence in the New Media Department, at the Institute for American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a semester year visit in 2010.

To learn more go to her website: www.jennifermoller.com.

Malin Bengtsson

Expanse: Materiality

“I look up. The sky is my space for imagination. The atmosphere is in a continuous state of energetic metamorphosis similar to the rhizomatic process of transforming fiber into felt.

I believe art has the capacity to interrupt our individual and collective habits of being in the world by engaging our senses, our minds, and our spirits in the territory between the known and unknown; between the real and imagined.

Felt is known as humanity's first fabric. It is believed that the felting technique sprung up around the world without any influence from others as the most natural way to make “fabric” from animal fiber.

Process: Wet felting is a rhizomatic process of creating a non-woven, durable material. The technique involves layering wool fibers, wetting them down with hot soapy water, and working the layers together by hand until they create a moldable material that is irreversibly matted together. The process of making felt requires planning, patience, and a great deal of physical energy.”

Malin B is an eco-inspired fiber artist with a penchant for color. Her studies include a two year textiles program in Sweden, a BFA from the 3D: Fibers Department (with a focus on felt-making) at the Massachusetts College of Art, and an MFA from Maine College of Art where she has also taught as an adjunct professor. Malin maintains a small studio/laboratory where she creates everything from wearables to sculpture using textile techniques in combination with recycled materials. She writes, “Art has the capacity to interrupt our individual and collective habits of being in the world by engaging our senses, our minds, and our spirits in the territory between the known and unknown; between the real and imagined.” She lives at 10,200' in the heart of the Rocky Mountains with her colorful fiancé Craig, and wild red dog Cody.