Transmissions curated by Patricia Watts, founder of ecoartspace and west coast curator for the Marin Community Foundation in Novato, California, was inspired by her time, recently, living for one year only 500 yards away from a large cell phone tower and mobile MRI unit in Northern California. It was during this time that she realized there was something transmitting, an energy field, from these two very common modern world inventions. Not being one to worry about cell phone or computer usage, it became clear while living in this environment that something had changed, the frequency of electromagnetic activity was undeniably present.
After investigating artists who had addressed EMFs earlier in the 80s and realizing to re-construct or re-present some of the early works would not be feasible at the exhibition location, Watts searched further to see what more recent artworks were available that would either literally or conceptually represent the invisible energy fields that are being transmitted in the daily environment.
Thilde Jenson, who photographs environmentally sensitive people, was one of the main inspirations for the show. Her images capture the level of desperation many people find themselves in when they realize that they are our canary's of the high tech world.
And, Christina Seely, who is a founding member of a design collective Civil Twilight, which created Lunar Resonant Streetlights that respond to moonlight, dimming and brightening in relationship to the cycles of the moon, documents light pollution around the world in some of our most brightly illuminated regions of the Earth.
Transmissions is comprised of one hundred and thirty artworks including paintings, photography, and sculpture by thirty artists from Berlin, New York City, Atlanta, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. The exhibition will be on view through January 24, 2014 at the Marin Community Foundation in Novato at 5 Hamilton Field, #200 from 9-5pm, Monday through Friday.
