“…in this backyard garden of the mind…”
Mixed-media installation
by Rebecca Muller
November 4-27, 2021
Opening Reception
Thursday, November 4, 2021, 5-7:00 pm
(Covid precautions)
Zoom Art Forum
Thursday, November 18, 2021, 7-9:00 pm
(CLICK FOR VIDEO)
Installation by Rebecca Muller at Gallery A3 in November
Spilling wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling, an immersive mixed media installation by Rebecca Muller transforms the interior space of Gallery A3 in Amherst.
“…in this backyard garden of the mind…” combines found matter, wire mesh, and photographic images with the artist’s reflective reading and practice. “It is the outgrowth of a year-long investigation and contemplation of matter, perception, and ‘how we see’, all set within the container of my backyard garden and outdoor studio,” Muller says.
“Both the process and material reflect the impact of time, weather, seasons, the elements, and forces of nature that interrupt or act upon matter and maker,” she continues. “What you see is the harvest of this garden, and what you, each viewer, bring to the experience of dwelling within it. “
To help viewers co-create individual experience within the installation, Muller places benches that invite people to sit back with the work, and in a contemplative mode, notice what arises within their bodies, emotions, awareness, and thoughts.
A variety of interconnected components create line and shape, cast shadow, and solid form:
- Window-sized configurations made from eroded metal, mesh, and photographic images, hang on the wall.
- Solo pieces and clusters of rebar ranging five to ten feet long, wrapped in mesh, along with various other matter cast shadows across the room.
- Eroded mesh columns stand four to eight feet tall.
- Fragments of words and suggestions of storylines emerge throughout the gallery space filled by forms of debris.
And, as Muller points out, much of this debris, like politics, is local (and personal). “A deep rhythm of place infuses my body, my work,” she says. “I’ve lived here for over 40 years, lingering with a deepening awareness of space, weather, and light; changing social, community, political, and global conditions; and the changing rhythms of aging in place.”
Biographical Information
Rebecca Muller shows her artwork in community and university galleries throughout New England. She studied painting and drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and received an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In addition to her art-making practice, Muller has had a long career supporting social justice and health equity throughout western Mass. Over the past 15 years, she has an increasingly vital creative meditation practice.
Art Forum Online: Thursday, November 18, 2021, 7:30-9:00 pm
Muller and fellow artist Sarah Bliss reflect on their creative process and practice.
Please register for this online event, which is free and open to the public. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Amherst Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
Click here for Zoom registration.
All images shown by Rebecca Muller:
(top left) Through accretion, photograph of glass pane with moss and other organic debris.
(top right) We lean out into the world leading with our most vulnerable parts. Our heart, our soft underbelly, photograph and eroded metal mounted on metal and rubber.
(bottom left) “…in this backyard garden…”, photograph with rebar, eroded metal, black mesh, coated wire, organic debris.
(bottom right) Within these Chambers of the Heart, crumpled sheet metal, rubber, wood, photo, paper, pigment, organic matter, caulking cord, and clay.
