DARK MATTER
THE BOOK
DARK MATTER is published as part of the Minnesota Center for Book Arts/Jerome Foundation Mentorship Program Series III.
Deep inside an idle iron mine, below the ancient hematite rock formations of northern Minnesota, a tiny elevator rattles to a halt on Level 27. Here among dozing bats and artificial lights, people wait. And wait. This is the unlikely site of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS II) lab, where scientists are looking for the tiny burst that will indicate evidence of dark matter, a product of the big bang believed to comprise 25% of the material in the universe. Observations of visible structures in space suggest that their own gravitational forces are not strong enough to account for their formation, suggesting some kind of missing mass is responsible. This missing mass is believed to be dark matter, so called because it does not emit or scatter light like ordinary matter.
DARK MATTER is a conceptual investigation of the visual phenomenon of shadows inside the CDMS II lab and in the forest around the site. Since scientists don't know what it is exactly, or if it even exists, these photographs imagine what this mysterious substance might look like if it were visible.
Robert Frost, from The Star-Splitter
THE MENTORSHIP PROGRAM (From the MCBA Website)
The MCBA Book Arts Mentorship is an artist development program aimed at introducing book arts to emerging artists whose primary medium is in another discipline.There are many reasons to explore book arts as a new artistic medium. As a highly malleable and versatile form of expression, book arts extend the possibilities of other art forms. You can create a conceptual space. Experiment with sequence and visual or verbal narrative. Use book art forms to extend, explore, document or reexamine work produced in other artistic disciplines.
Minnesota Center for Book Arts is proud to announce the recipients of the MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Mentorship Series III:
• poet Meryl DePasquale
• sculptor and textile artist Caroline Keefe
• photographer Ben Lansky
• video artist Amanda Lovelee
• choreographer, playwright and director Rachel Perlmeter
• photographer and printmaker Keith Taylor
JURORS Natasha Pestich, Minneapolis College of Art and Design Associate Professor of Printmaking. Jeff Millikan, University of Minnesota Department of Art affiliate faculty. Sheila Lynch-Salamon, poet, visual artist and recipient of MCBA/Jerome Book Arts Mentorship Series II. All were excited by the overall quality — technical and conceptual — of the applications received and, with much careful deliberation and discussion, made the final selection of six recipients.
Mentorship recipients will now embark on a year-long study of new artistic disciplines and one-on-one work with master artist mentors (Regula Russelle, Julie Baugnet and Richard Stevens) to develop their individual projects. The mentorship program will culminate in an exhibition in MCBA's main gallery in November 2011.