Schneider Museum of Art
Upcoming Exhibitions
Please visit the Exhibition Schedule page to see a list of shows coming up.
Unintended Consequences and the Digital Age
September 30 through December 10, 2010
Opening reception: Thursday, September 30, 5 - 7PM
In our main galleries will be The Art of Invention Sculpture by Daniel A. Henderson. An inventor and entrepreneur, Henderson has created a body of work that, in his own words, “explores the viral allure of technology and its unintended consequences.” Eight monumental works, including a larger-than-life rendition of a Princess phone in pink onyx and an oversized View-Master made of black marble, will be on view. Henderson has transformed a series of modest gadgets and appliances, familiar in our cultural landscape, into objects of artistic polish that ask us to contemplate technology, progress, and human interaction.
Dan Henderson
Henderson is a graduate of SOU, and was honored as Distinguished Alumnus in 1999. He holds 26 U.S. patents and is the inventor of photo and video messaging for cellular phones. Think of him every time you take a picture with your telephone!
At 4PM on September 30, Robert C. Morgan, international critic, curator, artist and professor, will give a lecture on Henderson’s work in the Meese Auditorium in the Art Building adjacent to the museum. Morgan has written the primary essay in a new book on Henderson’s art published jointly with the Schneider Museum. The book will be launched and available on September 30. Henderson will be signing copies.
Master of Ceremonies for the lecture and evening will be Fox News Channel Business Correspondent Brenda Buttner, a friend and fan of Henderson’s work.
Following the lecture will be a reception in the museum from 5 - 7PM.
Opening at the same time are new media shows by University of New Mexico Professor Shaurya Kumar, and, Professor Brett Phares of Marist College in New York. Each of them also gives us pause to reflect on the effects of technology.
Showing in the Heiter and Treehaven Galleries, Shaurya Kumar is sharing: The Lost Museum: The Fate of World’s Greatest Lost Treasures, and it documents an ironic instance of how the digital documentation of lost treasures of art, itself was lost. In 1982 several museums formed the Council for Documentation of Lost Art and Cultural Heritage to electronically preserve images of artworks originally lost due to theft, vandalism or war. Yet less than 25 years later, the database itself was inaccessible and corrupted. Kumar shows us what the files now look like, which includes a caveat about the hazards of relying on digital archives for the long term.
Shaurya Kumar, Bohddisattvas & Dieties,
Bamiyan, Afghanistan, destroyed by Taliban, 2001
Brett Phares’ show is called Undercasts: Navigating Blindness, and is an exemplar of concepts he has been exploring for the last decade. Phares states:
“Our body never stops taking it all in. The world, its media, flood our senses, saturating them beyond measure. If it werenʼt for a set of natural neurological processes, we would lie paralyzed in a house of mirrors, mesmerized by the stimuli surrounding us. Ironically, the same brain processes that allow us to get on with our daily life also make us blind to much of what goes on—to attend to the world as it is.”
Brett Phares, Looking Sideways, 2006
Through interactive video projections and objects Phares will demonstrate what he calls Ambient Media Art—a unique form that pre-empts neurological processes that shape our attention, with something more provocative or poetic, in order to unlock fruitful opportunities for individual growth and social discourse.