watch it happen

Two years ago, in tranquil Clearmont, Wyoming, four artists met during a residency at the Ucross Foundation. One of the four, Jackson’s Jenny Dowd, has curated a show of the artists’ work at the Art Association galleries, opening August 3. INHABITING features the work of Dowd, Ruth Boerefijn, Lindsey Glover, and Mayme Kratz.

Dowd is inviting the public to come in and see the installation process, offering a unique perspective on how a show comes together. Right now you can watch Ruth Boerefijn install The Land, The Journey. Culture Front will document some of the installation in the days leading up to the opening.

Boerefijn, who hails from Oakland, researched the letters and journals of pioneers in an effort to to try to understand and translate the experiences of pioneer women.

The installation at the Art Association, in process.

“This installation, venturing into the world of words, represents a struggle to open up a private form of experience – the journal, the artist’s conception, the internal perception – into an act of communication and an experience of relationship,” Boerefijn said. “For me, new language is beginning to surface and make its way onto the walls.”

detail from installation

“In this installation, I present my translation of the diaries and letters of these pioneer women into a material language. The materials that give voice to experience speak through colors and shapes as well as empty spaces and words.”

Ruth Boerefijn, detail from “The Land, The Journey” exhibit at Ucross, 2010