SMOKE SIGNALS

09.05.2014 - 09.27.2014

An exhibition of collaborative works by Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas and Genevieve Lowe.

Recognizing the present day—at the turn of a fully technological era—as an ideal moment to investigate printmaking’s extra-ordinary associations with dissemination, information, and transformation, artists Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas and Genevieve Lowe began a dialogue of visual communication on paper. The exhibition at SEDIMENT entitled, Smoke Signals, displays the results of an extended long-distance volley of imagery, investigating modes of communication and successful translation. Utilizing printing techniques, beginning with a variety of initial material prompts, the artists enacted an exploration into historical (analog) and modern (digital) methods of printmaking’s evolving forms - echoing many of the advances in daily communication. The ongoing material discussion of artistic authorship was structured around five prompts posed various manners of expression relating and responding to printmaking methodologies.

The resulting artworks, made using traditional as well as digital printmaking techniques, highlight the intra-dependency of art and technology. The artists discovered and embraced both communication lapses inherent to a separation of subjectivities, as well as surprising moments of clarity that suggested a presence of collective unconscious connection. These prompts and their results spring from an interpretation of smoke signals - one of the oldest forms of visual communication. 

Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas is a visual artist living and working in Richmond, VA. Originally from Denver, Colorado, she received a BA in liberal arts from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. Before moving to Richmond in August of 2013 to teach at VCU, Paloma was a Dean’s Scholar at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI where she earned an MFA in Printmaking. Her work adapts and appropriates the vernacular of the many regions she’s called home and traces the self-conscious search for cultural roots as a first-generation American.

Genevieve Lowe currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Genevieve was born and raised in the mountains of Idaho and received her BA from Colorado College in Colorado Springs, CO. In 2013, Genevieve received her MFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design. Concerns around wilderness, the portrayal of the American landscape and environmental health weave throughout Genevieve’s work as she explores what combination of elements (geologic, living, and atmospheric) must converge in order to form and convey a sense of place reflective, in particular, of the American landscape.