Witnessing and Weaving the Brain
Artist Conversation with Kate Gridley ‘74 & Barbara Rita Jenny ‘84
Thursday, April 22, 3:00-4:00
“But what do these scientific portraits of the brain tell us about the inner workings of the mind and the inner workings of personal perception and human nature?” Kate Gridley ‘74
In their recent bodies of work, both Kate Gridley ‘74 and Barbara Rita Jenny ’84 reflect on and explore the brain, neurological circuits and the science and humanity of memory. Even though their areas of investigation overlap, the works they create and the materials they use take very different paths.
In her series Witness Mark: Anatomy of a Memory, Gridley is creating a “metaphorical portrait of a memory” with 100 photo-realistic still-life paintings that are displayed in a pattern that evokes a neuronal structure. While Jenny, in her Dura Mater series, creates large scale, lacy laser-cut discs of interwoven brain cell forms—the spidery glial cells that activate to heal the damaged brain.
In this conversation we will learn more about the overlapping themes these two artists explore and the departure each takes to study, witness and interpret the mind.
Please register for this event using this link by Tuesday, April 20.
Image credit: Barbara Rita Jenny ’84, Astroglial (re)constellation, 2020, installation at Roux Institute Northeastern University, Portland ME, Lasercut hand-chromed PET-G, Approx. 6’ x 18’