LINDA CUMMINGS: "STIRRING THE WATERS" @ DM Contemporary

Current Past Upcoming

	EXHIBITIONS LINDA CUMMINGS: STIRRING THE WATERS	Intro \| View Exhibition \| Press Release
	October 15th - December 18th, 2010 Private View: Friday October 15th 6 - 8 pm dm contemporary is pleased to present, “Stirring the Waters”, an exhibition of new photographs by Linda Cummings, which opens at dm contemporary, NYC, with a private view on Friday, October 15th, 2010 , and continues through December 3rd, 2010. The exhibition features large scale photographs, created by Cummings on the Farm River, a tidal river, in Branford, Connecticut, over a period of twelve months – from August 2009 till August 2010. Linda Cummings’ “Stirring the Waters” series marks a departure from her previous fast-paced, urban-centric photographic scrolls, and a return to nature. However, the artist, in focusing on a two mile stretch of the river over a one year cycle, is not a passive observer watching the world around her, but an active participant immersing herself in that world, and touching it, and by doing so, changing and shaping it. Rooted in her performance-based ‘slip’ photographs during the 90’s, Cummings’ process takes her down the river in a kayak – in good or inclement weather – using a paddle to navigate, but also to literally, stir, splash or stroke, and sometimes draw on, the surface of the water. Then, with her camera she frames, captures, and preserves the outcome of that interaction - that moment. In the artist’s own words: “The gestures I make with my paddle and body both gather, and disperse, the shapes and colors reflected by sunlight. Everything is in motion until the camera extracts a moment, an image.” In the course of capturing that interactive moment, that reflects the outside world while embodying her inner world, Cummings successfully blurs the boundaries between drawing, painting, performance, and photography. All images in this exhibition are non-manipulated, full-frame digital photographs. While some are stand-alone, single images, others are grouped into double or multi image sequences. In her double images, which she calls binaries, Cummings puts into play the optical phenomenon of binary rivalry. Her proposition is that, “the camera records a one point perspective, while our eyes record two”, so by pairing two images side by side in each photograph, she offers an exploration of that optical experience. Except for a sequence called “Uprising”, most of the images in this series are meditative waterscapes that invite you to slow down, take your time, stay and ponder. In an essay she wrote for the catalogue to the exhibition, April Gornik notes: “Except for "Uprising", they all slow me down, or seem like the good idea of slowing down generally, albeit without a sense of stasis.” Additionally, Gornik observes: “Most of these photographs look through one substance to another, but result in a point that the two start to merge, moment as substance, as when water and grass and movement and light form a new sort of woven architectural depth. It's not deep, but rather forms a nest of water and grass whose border is the edge of the photograph itself. I want to reach through these photographs, but also to hold my hands there so that they can become part of the new substance they reveal. “ Linda Cummings was born in Valley Forge, PA. She has a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and an MFA from Mason Gross College of Art at Rutgers University, NJ. Cummings lives and works in New York City, and Branford, CT., and currently teaches at the International Center of Photography in NY. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships, and awards from prominent art institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art. Cummings’ photographs have been featured in BLIND SPOT and the “Director’s Cut” of APERTURE. Her work has been widely exhibited nationally and internationally, and is in private as well as public collections, such as: The National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian, Washington, DC; The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Museo Nazionale della Fotographia de Brescia, Brescia, Italy; Musee Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland. dm contemporary, NYC, is located at: 39 East 29th Street between Park and Madison Avenues in New York (212) 576-2032 RSVP to info@dmcontemporary.com is requested for private view, which takes place on Friday, October 15th, 6 – 8 pm. Gallery hours are: Wednesday – Friday 12 – 6 pm, and Saturday 12 – 4 pm.