ofWater: Polar

Melissa F. Clarke

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

PUTTY'S CORONATION is pleased to announce the opening of OFWATER: POLAR, a solo exhibition by Melissa F. Clarke at Putty’s Coronation at 1086 Myrtle Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11206 from March 26th - April 24th, 2022. OFWATER is a three-part series of exhibitions by artists who focus on water as an environmental subject, material, and allegory in a time of uncertainty.     

In her solo debut at Putty’s Coronation, Melissa F. Clarke presents OFWATER: POLAR, a series of glass sculptures installations, digital and silver gelatin prints with video projections, LEDs and sound.

POLAR by Melissa F. Clarke showcases the artist's multi-year inquiry starting in 2009 with a collaboration with Dr. Frank O Nitsche, Research Scientist, Marine Geology and Geophysics, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, looking at the bathymetric data recovered beneath the polar ice caps of Antarctica. In 2012 she investigated the northern polar region along the west coast of Greenland that retraced the steps of painter Willam Bradfard. This journey took her into the homes and towns of Greenlandic people who told their stories of ice that shaped her further investigations of the scientific data. 

Diving deep into the bathymetric data created by past glacial scours and gouges of the underwater landscape, and ecological implications that guide the narrative of the future polar ice caps in Antarctica and Greenland— Clarke explores tools and models for collaboration in new artistic engagements with the sciences. The result is a multi-channel, data-driven installation that dissects and reframes the relationships between data, nature, community and art. In allowing all elements to influence and reflect each other, Clarke creates a new speculative ecosystem that attempts to give shape to the invisible geological medium that is so hard to perceive and contextualize in everyday living.

For POLAR, Clarke utilizes underwater terrain data to form a multimedia immersive environment. Using information generated by acoustic imaging of the glacier-carved earth beneath the Antarctic sea ice, Clarke interprets the data to form three large sculptures, respectively titled ice gouge. These sculptures are suspended near the center of the gallery. Cut from glass, the works' jagged and irregular shapes simultaneously appear treacherous and fragile. In doing so, they manifest the ecology they represent. Illuminating the sculptures from above is a video projection. This video, along with the two additional projections on opposing ends of the gallery play an algorithmic composite of bathymetric data, combined with images of ice compiled through Clarke’s expedition along the Northwest coast of Greenland and three dimensional renders of digital water and ice, to create an environment that is in constant flux, one where data directly affects the viewer's cognitive experience of their surroundings and merges with the digital tools of the artist . On the wall are video stills, images of ice and of daily life in Greenland, as well the scientific data and methods used for much of the sound and visual. In the space we hear an undercurrent hum of the data sonification, along with Greenlandic voices, including the dogs howling along with sounds recorded of ice exploding, bubbling & cracking which Clarke recorded while in Greenland.

Both a reflexive overview and a call to action, Clarke’s multi-sensory installation communicates the complexity of the world both to further our understanding of the ecology that surrounds us, while also provoking new thought. POLAR’s reframing of science and geological technologies within cultural and popular discourse provides the sense of urgency and meaning requisite in considering the planet as an organism in and of itself.

Melissa F. Clarke is a Brooklyn based interdisciplinary creative whose work often employs generative and interactive custom-programmed environments. Melissa is a current artist in residence with Carnegie Mellon's Frank-Ratchye STUDIO For Creative Inquiry and recently with New Inc at the New Museum, Clock Tower, Visible Future Labs and the Simon’s Center for Geometry and Physics. Past exhibitions include: Knockdown Center, Pioneer Works, NY, Stream Gallery, NY, Loop Festival, Barcelona, Center for New Music, CA, Interactive Art Fair, FL, Eastern Bloc, CAN, Reverse Art Space, NY, 319 Scholes, NY, Eyebeam, NY, Issue Project Room, NY, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, NY, Electronic Music Foundation, NY, and with the Queens Museum, NY. Her work has been featured by the Art F City, Creators Project, L Magazine, Art in America, and with publications such as the Village Voice, Kickstarter, Art 21, Blouin Art Info, Impose Magazine, and Columbia University’s State of the Planet. Clarke is a graduate of NYU’s ITP program with a Tisch Fellowship.

ARTIST TALK and SPECIAL PERFORMANCES

Saturday, April 9 7:30pm | In Conversation: With Melissa F. Clarke, Luke Dubois, Amelia Winger-Bearskin, Margaret Schedel, Rebecca Uliasz, and Alda Boyd.

Description: A panel discussion addressing the roles and possibilities of technology based art engaging with ecology and community. Both a reflexive overview and a call to action, In Conversation invites us to inquire, together in open conversation, about the environmental and technological futures propositioned by Blockchain technology, online and IRL communities, data narratives and artificial intelligence.

Sunday, April 10 7:30pm | soundWaves: EMKVLT(ft: Jess Rowland, Margaret Schedel, Sofy Yuditskaya), Melissa F. Clarke, and Benjy Bradshaw.

Description: Artists will perform in the installation crafting experiences responding to the environment around them