Zooid Vamoose
By Tory Franklin
Opening Reception: August 15, 2009, 7 – 10 pm
Gallery Hours: Saturdays 12 – 4 pm or by appointment
Artist Website: www.toryfranklin.com
FLUXspace is pleased to present Zooid Vamoose, a solo exhibition presenting the work of artist Tory Franklin (Philadelphia, PA) from August 14 – September 13, 2009. The opening reception for Franklin’s first solo Philadelphia exhibition will be held August 15, 2009 from 7-10 pm. A multi-media installation featuring electronically enhanced light conducting LED prints, drawings, and cut-vinyl pieces, Tory’s work utilizes our animal friends (and foes!) as reassuring stand-ins to pictorialize human dramas, fears, and flashes of joy.
Zooid Vamoose is a show full of animals, animated and anthropomorphized, that render human emotion into an element more tangible. For this show, Franklin’s feverishly patterned and decorative language expands to include the magic of electronics and light, allowing flocks of birds to truly dazzle and attract, and unseen voices to arise from otherwise static yet turbulent prints, as though a flattened museum diorama were to come to life. Through the use of sumptuously layered imagery and detail the work begs the viewer to come in close, whispering, “let’s feel this together”, until some unbeknownst twist sinisterly repels. Permeating the overall mood of the show is the feeling that someone has something to say, in a hectic, frenzied, persistent and pressing way. Although two dimensional, Franklin’s work escapes the gallery walls, winds its way up the railings, flashes and reflects your stark emotions into the back of your retinas and somehow lands on its own two feet, secured in reality and standing right next to you, trying to hold your hand.
Tory Franklin has exhibited her work in solo and group shows across the nation, chiefly concentrated in Seattle, Washington then spanning the states all the way over to our neighbor New Jersey and including institutions such as: CoCA and the Seattle Opera House, both in Seattle, WA and the ISE Foundation in New York City. Internationally her work has been shown in the Glas Moog Gallery in Koln Germany, as part of an exchange exhibition with Kunsthochscule für Medien. Franklin holds an MFA from Rutgers University and received her BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, WA. She has slaved away to hone her self-taught printmaking skills, working in numerous screen shops and receiving first a printmaking residency at Old Dominion University in VA then an internship at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute in Singapore. Franklin lives and works in Philadelphia, PA where she continues work on new large-scale installations, along with smaller prints in what seems to be a manic fashion and is currently researching ways to incorporate print and technology, the first large-scale version of such to be exhibited at FLUXspace.
Installation Gallery: The below image is one of Tory's LED prints partially lit up during one of the many tests involved in the production of her prints. This piece will accompany a multitude of other work as well that will brighten up FLUX for the month of August and September.
FLUXspace is a Philadelphia based 501(c)(3) contemporary arts space which provides artists, curators, and instigators the opportunity for unrestricted and uncensored experimentation, professional presentation, and critical dialogue for the purpose of exploring and creating new art practices and media. FLUX consists of an exhibition space, artist residency program, as well as public programming including artist lectures, panel discussions, workshops, movie nights and performances.
Ooh, the light element looks fun. I'm going to try to make this one.
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