The Geophagic Water Closet
Caroline Earley, Brian Gillis, and Kate Walker
Meet Fellows;
Agustine Zegers _ Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Sarah Malekzadeh _ School of Visual Arts, NYC
Nicole Levaque _ Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Allie Linn _ MICA Curatorial; Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
Viola Bordon _ Washington University, Sam Fox School of Visual Arts, St. Louis, MO
Dana Robinson _ School of Visual Arts, NYC
Featuring DIGESTION CHOREOGRAPHY with Barbara DeVries and Leila Gordon
In this session, the artists have designed a permanent installation for the Main Building at Mildred's Lane. Earley, Gillis, and Walker lead the fellows through investigations around multiple perspectives of 'bathroom'; including cultural, psychological, and gendered. During this design phase, the water closet is created to function simultaneously as bodily space and archive of the site's identity; its social and cultural histories, related scientific data, physical and environmental attributes, and a record of the activities of Mildred's Lane.
Caroline Earley’s ceramic art practice draws on her interests in science, politics and cultural issues and incorporates hand, wheel, and industrial approaches. Her work explores the relationship between ceramic form and human bodies through the shifting interplay of form, appendage, and surface.
Earley was recently awarded the 2017 MoNA Luminaries Artist Award, Jeffry Mitchell Award for Sculpture from the Museum of Northwest Art. She was the Premiere Award winner of the 2016 Portage Ceramic Awards and the Grand Prize winner of the 2013 Idaho Triennial. She exhibits internationally and is represented by Milford Galleries, Dunedin and Whitespace Gallery in Auckland, New Zealand.
She received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and is Professor of Art, Ceramics at Boise State University.
Brian Gillis examines sociocultural issues as consequent evidence of particular historic moments. His work uses a variety of production strategies and conceptual approaches. These often draw from specific sites and related institutions and range from the production of objects and editions of multiples to site-specific installations and actions.
Gillis is the recipient of distinctions including fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, Oregon Arts Commission, MacDowell Colony, and a recent residency at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Gillis has exhibited his work nationally and internationally at institutions including CUE Art Foundation, the Mint Museum, and the Milwaukee Art Museum, as well as the Cluj Museum of Art in Romania and Heilongjiang University in China.
Gillis received a Master of Fine Arts from the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. He is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Oregon.
Kate Walker’s work encompasses hybrid painting objects and performance video projects, which intersect with our current cultural moment. Often collaborating with groups of students, or community members, these include choreographed performances or staged events that speak to specific contemporary social issues. Recent projects focus on visibility and agency of the queer body, and imaginary manifestations of current Utopian and dystopian urges.
Recent grants and awards include selection as a finalist for the 2018 New Zealand Painting and Printmaking Award, Idaho Commission on the Arts Grant, Alexa Rose Foundation Grant, and residencies at the Australia National University and Whitireia New Zealand. Walker has shown her work nationally and internationally including
Select 2, Garvey Simon, New York (2017), Out of Sight, Seattle, WA (2017) (collaborative work with Caroline Earley), ‘REUNION’- LGBTQA Symposium Show, Greenly Gallery, Bloomsburg University PA (2017), The Annual Wallace Art Awards, New Zealand (2014) and 28th Festival Les Instants Video, Marseilles, France (2015).
Walker received her MFA from the University of Arizona in 2005 and is an Associate Professor, at Boise State University.