<nettime-ann> [ann] Renate Ferro: Mining Memory

["timothy murray" <tcm1@cornell.edu>]

RENATE FERRO
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
     
          
              
  Two multi-media installations from the Mining Memory series by 
Renate Ferro are currently featured at the Schweinfurth Memorial Art 
Center in Auburn, New York.  The annual show Made in NY 2005 on view 
until August 28, 2005, features works by 46 artists from all over New 
York State. 

The first installation, Mining Memory: The Virtual Trunk features a 
one channel video projected into a large antique trunk.  In the 
beginning of the video the trunk opens and reveals an overstuffed, 
virtual assemblage of collected objects from the past.  Over time 
each of the objects slowly disappears before the viewer's eyes.  As 
the objects disappear, a narrative is heard relating to the object 
lost. The narratives address such issues as memory, trauma, and 
feminism.

In the second installation, Mining Memory: The Cabinet, the drawers 
of an antique cabinet are labeled with a Freudian construct such as 
Ego, Fetishism, Maternal Identification, Narcissism, etc.  Within 
each drawer is an assemblage of miniature objects that relate to the 
construct.  On the top of the cabinet a two-channel video is 
displayed on miniature LCD screens that screen digitized super 8 
movies of the artist's childhood shot in the 1950's and 60's.  When 
each drawer is pulled open, fragments of text on Freud by 
contemporary theorists and feminists are revealed on the drawer 
separations.  Also accompanying the piece is an independent audio 
track recounting the  interiors of each of the drawers.    

Mining Memory is an ongoing journey, a passage about the 
re-collection of objects and their meaning. Over time we accumulate 
objects by purchasing some, receiving others as gifts or perhaps even 
finding others. At some point in time we find ourselves sorting 
through our belongings.  The sorting process may coincide with a 
major psychic event in our life.  Over time our archive of treasures 
become associated with stories, recollections, and memory. What 
interests Ferro particularly are how these personal stories may be a 
part of others' recollections and how these intersecting stories, 
recollections, memory become part of a collective history and world 
memory.

Renate Ferro is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Cornell 
University in Ithaca, NY.   E-mail: rtf9@cornell.edu

The Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center is located at 205 Genesee St., 
Auburn, NY and the hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 5 pm and 
Sunday, 1 - 5 pm..  For more information call the Schweinfurth 
Memorial Art Center at (315) 255-1553 or visit their website at 
www.cayuganet.org/smac.

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