TIME:PIECE, A PUBLIC ARTWORK BY LEWIS KOCH, to hang on the front facade of the museum building, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba. The banner's design, comprised of line drawing and text, presents an interpretation of the idea of time defined from a wide variety of perspectives. Proposed 7/06. ----- from an e-mail and supporting material to Mary Reid, Curator of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: Dear Mary, Great seeing you again. I do hope we'll be able to collaborate on some of the installation possibilities we discussed… the Time banner, which could work as an excellent corollary to the current garage project… I'm attaching mocked-up installation views of the banner project on the WAG facade. Looking at the banner space on the WAG's front wall, it seems ideally suited for this particular project. Hope you think so as well… Looking forward to talking more with you about all this, Best wishes, Lewis Koch Madison, WI, USA lewiskoch@yahoo.com July 19, 2006 ----- excerpted info about the Time Banner project— For a large banner (ca. 8.5 x 4 m) to hang from the front façade of the building: The proposed banner uses text—brief and direct definitions written as free verse— and a line drawing to characterize the varied, often contradictory attributes of Time. We are preoccupied with time as never before; we are constantly seeking to hold (even ‘save’) this most mercurial of concepts. My attempt is to define and understand it via its many personal and public meanings. The Winnipeg Art Gallery is a public repository of memory, and, as such, an interpreter and mirror of time. The banner is intended to be a lyrical and meditative complement to this particular site. As a public art project it also presents the possibility of a participatory dimension, by encouraging direct audience involvement in the reading of the work, for instance, by inviting viewers to partake personally in writing their own definitions, anecdotes and thoughts about time. The project's idea comes from a theme that inhabits much of my work: the desire to call attention to the mundane and unremarkable elements of our daily lives, to recognize these as building blocks of our shared existence. As my work has progressed over the years, text has become increasingly important within my photographic assemblages, sculptural installations and temporary, sited artworks. The banner project presents these concerns as a public ‘thought-piece.’ ----- LEWIS KOCH draws upon aspects of photography, sculpture, assemblage and text with which he calls attention to the often unremarked upon elements of everyday life. Over the past thirty years, the artist’s work has been shown in garages, on kiosks and billboards, as well as in museums and galleries, with solo exhibitions in New York, London, Brussels, Seoul, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles. His work can be found in permanent collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago). As an artist- in-residence at Copenhagen’s Fotografisk Center, Koch created the web project Touchless Automatic Wonder which is the basis for his recent book by the same name. When Things Dream, the third installation in the artist’s Garage Trilogy, is presented on the web as Garageography 3.0.7. His most recent work presents a narrative of visual imagery and text that critiques the globalization of conflict and endless war. for further documentation of projects, and images-- Garageography 3.0.7, virtual tour of a 2006 public art project http://www.afsnitp.dk/galleri/garageography/ (allow 20 sec to load) Touchless Automatic Wonder, an overview of work prior to 2001 http://www.photography.dk/online/Koch/00a.html Touchless Automatic Wonder, review and gallery of images from the book , publ 2009 http://www.lensculture.com/koch.html
TIME:PIECE, A PUBLIC ARTWORK BY LEWIS KOCH, to hang on the front facade of the museum building, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba. The banner's design, comprised of line drawing and text, presents an interpretation of the idea of time defined from a wide variety of perspectives. Proposed 7/06. ----- from an e-mail and supporting material to Mary Reid, Curator of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada: Dear Mary, Great seeing you again. I do hope we'll be able to collaborate on some of the installation possibilities we discussed… the Time banner, which could work as an excellent corollary to the current garage project… I'm attaching mocked-up installation views of the banner project on the WAG facade. Looking at the banner space on the WAG's front wall, it seems ideally suited for this particular project. Hope you think so as well… Looking forward to talking more with you about all this, Best wishes, Lewis Koch Madison, WI, USA lewiskoch@yahoo.com July 19, 2006 ----- excerpted info about the Time Banner project— For a large banner (ca. 8.5 x 4 m) to hang from the front façade of the building: The proposed banner uses text—brief and direct definitions written as free verse— and a line drawing to characterize the varied, often contradictory attributes of Time. We are preoccupied with time as never before; we are constantly seeking to hold (even ‘save’) this most mercurial of concepts. My attempt is to define and understand it via its many personal and public meanings. The Winnipeg Art Gallery is a public repository of memory, and, as such, an interpreter and mirror of time. The banner is intended to be a lyrical and meditative complement to this particular site. As a public art project it also presents the possibility of a participatory dimension, by encouraging direct audience involvement in the reading of the work, for instance, by inviting viewers to partake personally in writing their own definitions, anecdotes and thoughts about time. The project's idea comes from a theme that inhabits much of my work: the desire to call attention to the mundane and unremarkable elements of our daily lives, to recognize these as building blocks of our shared existence. As my work has progressed over the years, text has become increasingly important within my photographic assemblages, sculptural installations and temporary, sited artworks. The banner project presents these concerns as a public ‘thought-piece.’ ----- LEWIS KOCH draws upon aspects of photography, sculpture, assemblage and text with which he calls attention to the often unremarked upon elements of everyday life. Over the past thirty years, the artist’s work has been shown in garages, on kiosks and billboards, as well as in museums and galleries, with solo exhibitions in New York, London, Brussels, Seoul, Toronto, Chicago and Los Angeles. His work can be found in permanent collections throughout the United States, Canada and Europe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art (Chicago). As an artist- in-residence at Copenhagen’s Fotografisk Center, Koch created the web project Touchless Automatic Wonder which is the basis for his recent book by the same name. When Things Dream, the third installation in the artist’s Garage Trilogy, is presented on the web as Garageography 3.0.7. His most recent work presents a narrative of visual imagery and text that critiques the globalization of conflict and endless war. for further documentation of projects, and images-- Garageography 3.0.7, virtual tour of a 2006 public art project http://www.afsnitp.dk/galleri/garageography/ (allow 20 sec to load) Touchless Automatic Wonder, an overview of work prior to 2001 http://www.photography.dk/online/Koch/00a.html Touchless Automatic Wonder, review and gallery of images from the book , publ 2009 http://www.lensculture.com/koch.html