Kerry Downey, Ellie Irons, Lori Merhige, Claudia Peña Salinas
May 15-June 19, 2010
Fabricolor Building, 24 1/2 Van Houten Street, 3rd Floor, Paterson, New Jersey (map)
Gallery Hours: Saturdays and Sundays, 11am – 5pm
Click HERE to see images from the exhibition.
PATERSON ARTWALK: SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 10AM-10PM
CLICK HERE for more details, including MAP of the Artwalk
GETTING THERE:
SHUTTLE BUS: A shuttle bus that travels to Paterson picks up near the corner of 41st Street and 8th Avenue in NYC, outside of the New York Times building. Fare is $5.50 each way. Let the driver know you want to go to the Fabricolor Building in the historic district - Van Houten Street between Mill St and Cianci St. - he/she should be able to tell you where to get off the bus once you arrive in Paterson. Alternately, get off the bus at the Main and Ellison Street stop, outside the Bank of America in Paterson. Walk along Ellison street one long block toward Federici Park. You will see a large green and red parking deck on the right at the end of the block, across from DiClassico Restaurant on your left. Federici Park is across the street in front of you. You may also see the memorial to Lou Costello. Federici Park is #1 on the Artwalk Map. Great Fallings/Fabricolor Building is #6. Cross through or around the park to the opposite end – 24 1/2 Van Houten street is directly behind the park.
BY NJ TRANSIT (train from Penn Station): Trains leave on the quarter hour from Penn Station all afternoon, for a 40-45 min ride to Paterson. Take the train to Secaucus Junction, and transfer to the Paterson-bound train on platform F. To see the Saturday train schedule click here. For walking directions from the station, click here.
DRIVING, FROM MANHATTAN: Click here for step by step directions via the Lincoln Tunnel.
OPEN EACH WEEKEND THROUGH JUNE 19, 11am – 5pm
Exhibition Description:
Some of us were born here. Some of us found our way here. Somewhere we lost ourselves in the silk city and the place took us in. This city is, first and foremost, an American city. So many things have happened in Paterson, New Jersey. Most of these things have been lost. We are working to recover some of that history, weaving it together with our own obsessions and compulsions. This unearthing process is rife with conflict, as Paterson is a place striated with contradiction. We can’t help but see ourselves reflected in its histories: in the rise and fall of the first planned industrial city, in the historic labor unrest, and in the grand, eroded leisure. We explore not a place of inherent nostalgia, but a network of restless spaces for and of contemplation.
Installed on the third floor of Paterson’s historic Fabricolor Building, Great Fallings brings together four artists working in a range of media, including sculpture, video and installation. Exploring a range of issues from gender performance to ecological systems to embroidery, our work intersects around a shared interest in Paterson’s physical history, specifically its role as a center of industry, labor and leisure. Through research and repeated visits to Paterson, each of us brings our own methodology and sensibility to bear in creating work that takes the city as its starting point and focus. The unique raw space of the Fabricolor Building, a former dye factory, becomes an integral element of an exhibition that could be staged nowhere else.
Kerry Downey’s video installation links athletics and labor, the body and the landscape, local tales to national and international narratives. She uses Paterson’s abandoned, historic Hinchliffe stadium as a set for a lone athlete’s struggle for victory. Ellie Irons’ installation investigates the history and present status of water ecology in Paterson through sculptures, topographical drawings, and a floating sweet potato garden. Lori Merhige mines her own family history in the embroidery trade to explore the soon-to-be-lost history of Paterson’s textile industry through a sound, video and sculptural installation. Claudia Peña’s exploratory walks through Paterson will lay the foundation for her installation-based practice, through which she examines the term “Falls” through photographs, objects, and found detritus.
Great Fallings is part of a series of events and exhibitions held with the support of the Paterson Arts Council. The exhibition will be open Saturdays and Sundays beginning May 15, and will continue through June 13th, 2010. It will be part of the 2010 Paterson Arts Walk, held on Saturday, June 12th, 2010. The Fabricolor Building is located at 24 1/2 Van Houten Street, Paterson, New Jersey.
For more information or images, please write to info@greatfallings.com
