For Immediate Release — Aug. 6, 2008

Contact:
David Irwin
Media Relations Manager
(585) 245-5516
irwin@geneseo.edu

Greek Underworld is Focus of Experimental Installation at SUNY Geneseo’s Lederer Gallery

GENESEO, N.Y. – Asphodel, a mythical place in the Greek underworld, is the setting for an experimental art exhibit Aug. 10-19, at SUNY Geneseo’s Lederer Gallery in Brodie Hall.  The exhibit opens Aug. 10 with a reception in the gallery from 4 – 6 p.m. with additional viewing hours Monday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m.  All events are free and open to the public.

 Artist Doug Anderson, associate professor of art at Geneseo, depicts Asphodel as gray and gloomy fields where only the Asphodel grows, a white flower which is consumed by the dead wandering aimlessly in the fields.  He also depicts the Elysium Fields (heaven) and Tartarus (hell) in the experimental installation.

Asphodel is a 21-square-foot area filled with detailed but ambiguous human body parts created in charcoal and ash on six-inch wide strips of tape hanging from the ceiling.  The work has been created with participation from nearly 150 community members and visitors to Geneseo.  Participants were asked to make an imprint on the tape strips using their hands, arms or face.  The artist later treated the tape with charcoal and ash to enhance the images.  Viewers are invited to walk among the strips of human forms to reach the center of the installation, where they may place a thought, memory or idea in the Vessel of Lethe (forgetfulness).  Sounds have been arranged for the work by Oregon composer John McKinnon to intensify the experience.

Asphodel is supported by a grant from the New York Council on the Arts Decentralization Program administered by the Genesee Valley Council on the Arts.