Collapsed Coordinates

Beki Basch and Jacob Zimmerman:

Collapsed Coordinates

Rosenberg Gallery

Collapsed Coordinates is a two-person exhibition featuring photography and sculpture by Beki Basch (Baltimore, MD) and Jacob Zimmerman (Newark, DE). Basch and Zimmerman present their individual series of works as evidence of formal and imagined parallels gleaned through investigation, travel, and a focused lens. Basch draws connections between Baltimore and Iceland, capturing synthetic landscape vignettes within the Baltimore area that align visually with those of the distant, northern country.

Zimmerman charts a path across the United States, exploring meaning in a journey without a specific destination. Revisiting the images captured and the forms explored—suddenly all distance is collapsed. Each artist folds the intangible experience of the moment into tangible objects that attempt to describe them.

Presented in two adjacent bodies of work, Basch and Zimmerman each utilize a fixed perspective from which to observe the world.

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Beki Basch Images from Iceland and Baltimore are placed side by side to form a self-reflexive contextual relationship. Thinking of Iceland as the source and Baltimore as a surrogate, I look for moments that recall a fully formed flicker of memory that allow me to inhabit both spaces at once. Referred to as “Master of Two Worlds” in Joseph Campbell’s writing about the universal hero’s journey—this moment in both spaces gives one the ability to harness a powerful energy procured from a great quest, while living in the “ordinary world.” The two images from Iceland are crisp and unfettered in their nature, while the Baltimore compositions possess an inherent distance, determined by one’s physical inability (restricted access) to get close.

Parallels (Retail) is a sculptural installation that references “art” in retail situations and the fetishization of survivalist gear. The drawstring backpack was chosen as design contrary to the hard-wearing durational comfort of a backpacker’s bag, as these pieces are imagined as prototypes of an alternative brand to Iceland’s well-known, expensive, and rugged 66° North. 39° North represents Baltimore’s geographic parallel, and the black trash bag/drawstring backpack more commonly found in an urban setting reflects survival and style in a culture with different values and priorities.

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Jacob Zimmerman “ No matter whether one is flying over Newfoundland or the sea of lights that stretches from Boston to Philadelphia after nightfall, over the Arabian deserts which gleam like mother-of-pearl, over the Ruhr or the city of Frankfurt, it is as though there were no people, only the things they have made and in which they are hiding.”

— W.G. Sebald, The Rings of Saturn

As I read Sebald’s walking account, I think more and more about how he is leaving an impression in the grass. Thinking less about what he is observing and more about whether or not he is pigeon-toed and what size his shoe is. I’m thinking more about his bodily presence activating the landscape and whether or not the place he is observing even exists after he has passed through.

More observations to come.

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Beki Basch

Beki Basch

Jacob Zimmerman

Jacob Zimmerman

Mundi/Bird

Mundi/Bird

Houston, TX

Bisbee, AZ

inkjet prints on paper

inkjet prints on paper

24” x 27”

24” x 27”

silver gelatin on fiber Paper

silver gelatin on fiber paper

2018

2018

20” x 16”

20” x 16”

2018

2018

cover left

cover right

Beki Basch

Jacob Zimmerman

Jökulsárlón/Mound

Core Sample #10

inkjet prints on paper 24” x 27”

turned wood, polystyrene, and glue

2018

12” x 12” 2018

Beki Basch and Jacob Zimmerman:

Collapsed Coordinates November 5 - December 20, 2018 ARTISTS’ RECEPTION:

Tuesday, November 13, 6-9 p.m.

Rosenberg Gallery 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Monday – Friday 410-337-6477

The exhibit is free and open to the public.

DIRECTIONS

The Rosenberg Gallery program is funded with the assistance of grants from the Maryland State Arts Council, an agency funded by the state of Maryland and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as the Baltimore County Commission on the Arts and Sciences.

Baltimore Beltway, I-695, to exit 27A. Make first left onto campus.

www.goucher.edu/rosenberg

19297-8113 11/18

GALLERY HOURS