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An exhibition of work by Washington D.C. artist Ding Ren curated by Megan Rook-Koepsel and Jennifer Quick. Exhibition from April 8th – May 6th 2009. Opening reception and gallery talk with performance from art collective Bible Kiss Bible on Wednesday, April 8th from 6-8PM.
College Park, MD - The Stamp Gallery is pleased to present HERE/THERE, a solo show featuring work by emerging artist Ding Ren. Ding Ren has said “I believe in the potential of refusals, of thinking small and of taking a step back to notice and reflect upon the in-between, barely there moments, no matter how fleeting they may be.” In HERE/THERE, works of installation, performance, drawing, video, and photography provide the means for Ren to explore those spaces and moments that are liminal and ‘barely there,’ those that bridge the gaps between “here” and “there.” Ren’s work captures these moments visually and conceptually, compelling us to consider their incredible potential and impact on our lives.
Works that highlight the potential impact of such things as a line or silence will be displayed throughout the gallery space, such as Ren’s video work Moment of Silence, in which Ren simultaneously displays four scenes showing her walking into a field along pre-existing lines in the grass. We hear her footsteps as she walks in all four frames towards an undefined goal. Then, a simultaneous pause causes a palpable silence, all the more apparent because what we are hearing is in fact all four moments of silence in sync. In Moment of Silence, it is the space between the coming and going that compels Ren to linger. It is this marginality, the highlighting of the pregnant moment of the in-between, that defines Ren’s artistic pursuit.
A line, like silence, is seemingly uncomplicated and monotonous. But works such as Line Research which involves a slide projector displaying an image of a line with books featuring the word “line” in the title exemplify the myriad of possibilities and great potential that a line holds (a line of thought, a designation of space, a nascent drawing, a musical note, to name a few). Both silence and lines, and for that matter all our ‘in-betweens’ and ‘barely theres,’ allow us to concentrate on what could be – the potential inherent in a line, the anticipation elicited by silence – rather than the things themselves. Ren’s work highlights the potential impact of the near-nothings and in-betweens on our lives, if only we would stop and take notice.
Ding Ren was born in 1983, in Wuhan, China. She currently lives and works in Washington D.C. where she is pursuing an MFA in Studio Art at George Washington University. Ren received her BA in Photography and Art History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2005. She has exhibited her art at Maryland Institute College of Art, Area 405, Current Gallery, George Washington University, UMBC, and at the Corcoran College of Art + Design. She has performed with her band/art collective, Bible Kiss Bible at Artomatic, the Whole Gallery, and Artscape.Ren is also an emerging writer and critic, having contributed to many publications including RADAR Review, Urbanite, Locus Magazine, and ArtVoices Magazine.
Click here to see a youtube video of Bible Kiss Bible performing at Artscape 2008!
Listen to interviews with the Here/There artists
