STREAMING | Sculpture by Christy Rupp

STREAMING

by Christy Rupp

January 19 – April 27, 2024

Sculpture

Director’s Foreword

We are so pleased to present Streaming: Sculpture by Christy Rupp in the museum’s Walsh Gallery this winter, featuring more than 70 of Rupp’s artworks from across the last two decades of her career as an ecological artist and activist, as well as three new works created for this exhibition. Rupp’s artistic practice brilliantly highlights human impact on our environment through her use of plastic objects collected from the waste stream, as well as threatened species across the animal and plant worlds, as her subject matter. The exhibition will close the week of the celebration of the 54th Earth Day (April 22nd, 2024). Since calling attention to how plastics are destroying our planet is part of Earth Day’s mission, it will be an appropriate conclusion to an exhibition that we hope will prompt conversations and action among our many audiences on this topic. We hope you will join us for the array of associated programming which has been created to complement the exhibition, and which will be presented over the next few months. For information on these programs, please check the listings at the end of this brochure. Thank you to Brian Walker, PhD for serving as our faculty liaison for this exhibition as well as for the exhibition on view simultaneously in the Bellarmine Hall Galleries, Helen Glazer: Walking in Antarctica, which shares an environmental theme. All of our programs this spring are in person, but we will also continue to livestream them via thequicklive.com whenever possible. Virtual programs will also be recorded, so if you cannot join us for an event, you can look for the program on our YouTube channel a few days later.

We are very grateful to Christy Rupp for her collaboration on planning and installing this exhibition and for lending many of the works – none of this would have been possible without her enthusiastic support of this project. We would like to thank Jen Dragon for her thoughtful appraisal of Rupp’s career and works in the catalogue essay which follows.

Thanks as always go to the exceptional museum team for their hard work in bringing this exhibition and its associated programming to life: Michelle DiMarzo, Curator of Education and Academic Engagement and Megan Paqua, Museum Registrar. We are grateful for the additional support provided across the University by Edmund Ross, Susan Cipollaro, Dan Vasconez, and Tess Brown Long, as well as by our colleagues in the Quick Center for the Arts and the Media Center.

Carey Mack Weber

Frank and Clara Meditz Executive Director

Christy Rupp | Streaming

Since the ‘70s, Christy Rupp’s sculptures and works on paper have explored the relationship between economics and the environment. Rupp seeks to make this complex topic – one usually examined in abstract articles – into a clear and direct visual narrative accessible beyond the language of dissertations, punditry, and scientific studies. Emerging from the lens of Discard Studies, a discipline that considers the systems and consequences of waste, Rupp weighs these systems and their short-term benefits against the long-term costs of climate degradation and the marginalization of threatened species.

Buried in history, politics, and culture, the politics of waste are rooted in consumerism with its voracious consumption and energy needs. With welded steel, foraged plastic detritus, historic, scientific, and contemporary imagery, a dark sense of humor, and the uncanny ability to connect the dots, Christy Rupp dives into this dystopia. Her artwork charts a course through the turmoil, observing the trail of collateral damage as it moves through our world, seeking to interpret and magnify these interdependencies.

Some examples of Rupp’s visual unification of cause and effect are found in her installation Moby Debris, a collection of microplanktonic organisms made from welded steel rods and discarded plastic. To quote artist and art scholar Ellen K. Levy, “Rupp considers how waste and toxic elements in our environment corrupt the accepted way in which organisms function and evolve… Each of her aquatic-inspired “organisms” is composed of discarded plastic detritus and visually comments on the damage done to species when they consume the glut of inorganic detritus hurled into our food chain.”1 In magnifying the petroplanktonic microbes that inevitably find their way into a whale’s stomach, Rupp clarifies the irony of a food chain where the smallest organisms sustain the largest mammals along with the floating oceanic plastic waste that accompanies them into a whale’s stomach. A similar statement is made with the plastic-stuffed wall works of Aquatic Larvae, with the paradox of young hatchling fishes nurtured in egg sacks populated by a buffet of accumulated microplastics.

In works such as her Pangolins and the series Remaining Balance Insufficient featuring aquatic mammal skeletons, Rupp bends and welds steel rods into graceful lines as effortlessly as if drawn on paper. The animals’ forms are then sheathed in innumerable, shimmering credit cards as they float jewel-like in the air. However, these pangolins and manatees are victims of environmental exploitation as they wrestle with human-caused habitat degradation. Rupp’s visualization of their plight equates the debt incurred with their survival, leveraged against the temporary advantage of human exploitation. Made as they are of credit cards, this work reminds us that, unlike the world of finance, the biosphere is not man-made, and it’s impossible to manipulate with numbers and percentages. Natural habitat is much easier to destroy than repair.

In addition to numerous sculptures, the exhibition features two giant digital prints on fabric that confront the emergency of non-renewable energy and plastic waste and their enduring damage to terrestrial systems. While these immense banners cannot ever be large enough to fully present this unfolding catastrophe, an abstract appreciation for the beauty of matter out of place is obvious.

As much as Christy Rupp’s art is about ecological emergencies, she is informative without being didactic, while her sense of playful wit and whimsical spirit convey the darkest news. However, her direct and accessible message does not come at the expense of aesthetics as the artist’s accomplished draftsmanship and percussive colors are at once delightful and dramatic. In visualizing the effects of ecological degradation, Christy Rupp does not pinpoint any single culprit – only because there isn’t just one cause; rather, there is a collective complacency that permeates society. Anyone who views Rupp’s work is engaged in some way as a citizen of a world in which it is easier to participate in a petrochemical-fueled lifestyle, blissfully ignorant of our burgeoning carbon footprint and impending doom.

- Jen Dragon

Checklist

All works © Christy Rupp. All works are Courtesy of the Artist unless otherwise noted.

Petroplankton, 2019-2021

Collected single use plastics

1. Black Pipes 9 x 14 x 3 inches

2. Blue with Clear Circle 8 x 13 x 3 inches

3. Blue Fish 14 x 12 x 3 inches

4. Blue Mesh 11 x 13 x 3 inches

5. Brown Spots 15 x 10 x 3 inches

6. Clear Bird 8 x 11 x 3 inches

7. Clear Green 9 x 12 x 3 inches

8. Computer board 11 x 12 x 3 inches

9. Drive Case 7 x 11 x 3 inches

10. Floss Blue 9 x 13 x 3 inches

11. Green Tail 12 x 13 x 3 inches

12. Green with Pill Bottle 9 x 14 x 3 inches

Green Worm

14. Mesh Red Curler 8 x 12 x 3 inches

13.

7 ½ x 12 x 3 inches

Cat. 4

Cat. 10

15. Orange Worm 11 x 9 x 3 inches

16. Orange Green 10 x 11 x 3 inches

17. Pill Bottles 9 x 13 x 3 inches

18. Red and Black Circuit 7 x 12 x 3 inches

19. Red Hummingbird 8 ½ x 11 x 3 inches

20. Red Fish 13 x 8 x 3 inches

21. Spray Bottle 9 x 13 x 3 inches

22. White and Black Mesh Shrimp 10 x 10 x 3 inches

23. Yellow Scrubby 9 x 10 x 2 inches

24. Yellow Lid Orange Comb 9 x 13 x 3 inches

25. Plankton 1 8 x 17 x 2 ½ inches

26. Waterbug 11 x 16 x 4 inches

27. Double Eggs 15 x 15 x 4 ½ inches

Aquatic Larvae, 2019-2020

Welded steel and collected single use plastics

28. White Egg Mass 13 x 32 x 6 inches

29. Yellow Styrofoam Eggs 14 x 33 x 6 inches

Cat. 19

Cat. 17

30. Blue with Pill Bottles 11 x 34 x 6 inches

31. Black & White Egg Mass 14 x 32 x 6 inches

32. Red Egg Sack 15 x 34 x 6 inches

33. Clear Egg Mass with Blue and Green 15 x 30 x 6 inches

Oily Turtles, 2007-2015

34. Backhoe Turtle, 2011

Steel, paper and encaustic wax 18 x 13 x 14 inches

35. Burned Paper Turtle Shell, 2012

Steel, paper and encaustic wax 11 x 9 x 2 inches

36. Medium Oily Turtle Shell, 2011

Steel and encaustic wax 14 x 12 x 6 inches

37. Turtle Shell with Red Button, 2012

Steel and encaustic wax 13 x 13 x 5 inches

38. Wampum Turtle, 2015

Steel and encaustic wax 18 x 16 x 14 inches

39. Zero Balance Turtle, 2007

Steel and credit cards 17 x 16 x 6 inches

Moas, 2007

Fast food chicken bones, welded steel, paper

40. Moa 108 x 39 x 42 inches

41. Moa

58 x 58 x 26 inches

Cat. 21

Cat. 41, 40

42. Quetzal, 2020

Credit cards, wood, steel, mixed media

70 x 8 x 6 ½ inches

43. Hanging Pangolin, 2022

Credit cards, steel, mixed media

38 x 17 x 18 inches

44. Walking Pangolin, 2022

Credit cards, steel, mixed media

37 x 16 x 12 inches

Lent by Dyan Machan

Fake Ivory Series, 2012

Welded steel and encaustic wax with transfers

45. Narwhal Tusk with Hydrocarbon Chains 83 x 3 ½ x 3 ½ inches

46. Elephant Tusk with Greenhouse Gasses 68 x 23 x 14 inches

Swiped Series, 2015

Steel, credit cards, mixed media

47. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

48. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

49. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

50. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

51. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

52. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

53. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

54. Frog 12 x 8 x 7 inches

Cat. 34

Cat. 43, 44

55. Remaining Balance Insufficient, 2015

Welded steel, gold credit cards, and plastic gift cards

122 x 43 x 17 inches

Snagged Series, 2017

Plastic net bags, steel, plastic, fishline and paint

56. Parrots (after Frida Kahlo, ca.1937)

15 x 10 x 5 inches

57. The Goldfinch (after Carel Fabritius, 1654)

11 x 9 ½ x 6 inches

58. Bird Pin (after Louise Bourgeois, ca. 1985)

17 x 38 x 1 inches

Lent by the Collection of Joshua Rechnitz, New York

59. Threatened Swan (after Jan Asselijn)

24 x 41 x 15 inches

Lent by the Collection of Joshua Rechnitz, New York

60. Bird in Space (after Constantin Brancusi, versions 1923–1940)

66 x 7 x 7 inches

61. Bird of Death (after Hieronymus Bosch)

38 x 20 x 9 inches

Lent by Dyan Machan

62. Dove (after Pablo Picasso, 1949)

14 x 11 x 3 inches

Rainforest Sources of Bio-Pirated Western Medicines, 2014

Welded steel, paper, and wax

63. Snake (Captopril for heart failure, stroke)

27 x 18 x 5 inches

64. Blowfish (Tetrodotoxin pain suppressant, heroin substitute)

18 ½ x 12 x 7 inches

Cat. 56

65. Curare plant (Tubocurarine, muscle relaxant, anesthetic)

16 x 12 x 3 inches

66. Fire Ant (Solenopsin antibiotic, anti-coagulant, rheumatism)

20 x 11 x 11 inches

67. Frog (Epibatidine, pain killer)

1 x 19 x 4 inches

68. Tree Fungus (Polysaccharide Peptide, lungs, colon, stomach cancers)

14 x 9 x 9 inches

69. Felted Oil Cans, 2010 Life-size hand-felted wool portraits of oil containers

Dimensions variable

70. Nesting Pesticide Dolls, 2017 Wood and paint

Dimensions variable

71. Spheres: Glass Hands, 2004 Glass

7 inches (diameter)

72. Spheres: Chicken Bones, 2007 Chicken bones

7 inches (diameter)

73. Spheres: Wasp Paper, 2012 Wasp paper

7 inches (diameter)

74. Spheres: Twigs, 2018 Twigs

7 inches (diameter)

75. Plastic Landscape, 2023 Digital print from stock photo, printed on fabric 20 x 40 feet

76. On Demand, 2022

Digital print from cut paper collage (2019), printed on fabric   10 x 38 feet

77. Lemur 1, 2023

Welded steel, toy chainsaws and collected single use plastic debris

29 x 17 x 17 inches

78. Lemur 2, 2023

Welded steel, toy chainsaws and collected single use plastic debris

26 x 15 x 16 inches

Cat. 70

Programs

Events listed below with a location are live, in-person programs. When possible, those events will also be streamed on thequicklive.com and the recordings posted to our YouTube channel.

Register at: fuam.eventbrite.com

Thursday, January 18, 2024, 5 p.m.

Opening Night Lecture: Christy Rupp

Quick Center for the Arts, Kelley Theatre and streaming on thequicklive.com

Presented as part of the Edwin L. Wiesel Jr. Lectureships in Art History, funded by the Robert Lehman Foundation

Thursday, January 18, 2024, 6-8 p.m.

Opening Reception

Quick Center for the Arts, Lobby and Walsh Gallery

Saturday, March 23, 12:30-2 p.m. and 2:30-4 p.m.

Family Day: Re-Re-Re-Recycle!

Quick Center for the Arts, Walsh Gallery Space is limited; registration required

Thursday, April 11, 11 a.m. (in-person, Walsh Gallery) and 12 noon (thequicklive.com)

Art in Focus: Christy Rupp, The Goldfinch (after Carel Fabritius), 2017