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Gregs current show Undertow running in the experimental space, opened Friday amid a fun and warm reception by the local art cognocenti. Images and a statement follow.
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"UNDERTOW"
An Installation by Greg Hull
Artist Statement
Undertow is one in a series of works that I refer to as immersion fields. These are fields or horizontal planes of visual information that the viewer first experiences by being immersed within them. As they move through the installations, the viewer is raised above the field, usually by means of a ramp or stair system, revealing a larger or other intended pattern or array of information. Ultimately the viewer is re-immersed into the horizontal field and allowed to exit the array.
In this case the field is comprised of umbrellas. The individual unit moves or breathes in a slow rhythm reminiscent of floating or swimming. They move at a relaxed pace, but open and close as if they were meeting some steady form of resistance – as if they were being opened and closed under water. When the viewer first gains visual access across the tops of the umbrellas, they find themselves afloat in a sea of ebbing black forms much like the rolling, pitching sea. It is this visual experience that I am primarily trying to offer the viewer
The black umbrellas may also conjure images of masses of umbrella bearing people, going about their daily routine on a rainy day. The viewer is allowed to rise out of the horizontal grid and gain a unique vantage point revealing the otherwise unavailable patterns of this sea of movement.
Ultimately, I would like this experience to involve a much larger field of umbrellas set somewhat higher than eye level and a walkway that places the viewer firmly in the center of the array. Many different patterns could be generated over the course of each day. This would be achieved with a control system similar to the one used to drive and manipulated the neon lights in the interactive sculpture titled "Aurora" which sat on top of the Indianapolis Museum of Art last summer.
The 34 units making up the installation are the offspring of one initial kinetic umbrella titled "BREATH" © 1998 because of its human respiratory-like motion and the sound generated by the fabric of the umbrella reaching its full inflation.
Greg Hull
5/2000
Greg had an active 1999. He is opened the first One person show by a local artist at the IMA in many years. His installations consist of three distinct bodies of work. the most visible being Auroras a Neon installation that is internet based. Introducing the Ocean is an audio piece. click here to go to Greg's personal page. Greg also performed a light installation on the circle and State Capitol Building entitled Sunset on the Millenium on New Years Eve. He also got sucked into full time employment as a visiting assistant professor of Sculpture at Herron School of Art.
Greg 's second show:
Cancelled Flights was a critical success and traveled to the Ft Wayne Regional Museum of Art
Gregs first Show:
"The Crux of Matter" marks a transition in my work. For the past ten years I have primarily created Installations. These temporary environments use the experience of a given situation as their vehicle for communication. With this new body of work, I am presenting the first evidence of my recent decision to redirect some of my energies toward the sculptural object. The work is a result of questioning my relationship to materials. It confronts, among other things, my long held resistance to object and idea permanence.
"Desire"
is the first kinetic sculpture I have built. The steel crutches are extensions of the hand
and fingers as well as of our desire to touch an possess. It also describes our
relationship to tools and technology. Even after investing the machine with the human
title and emotion- desire- it is incapable of truly possessing. The same prosthetic that
extends its reach, veils and separates it from the true experience. It is still the gloved
hand that touches the child's face.
The Crutch is also evident in five other works which take their names and points of departure from the five senses. Each uses a glass crutch to emphasize the fragile strength of beauty, imagination, and memory. "Heran" is named for the almost unfathomable sound of butterfly wings. It draws slightly from the common use of butterflies as symbols of prosperity, but more directly from their real role as indicators of the health and stability of a given ecosystem. "Toccare" uses the two materials most commonly said to hold light, to question the relationships between faiths, spirituality, and the tactile, tangible world. In each of these five works, the filled crutch is juxtaposed with an environment meant to give context and to punctuate material relationships. These works, like all the works in the space, have their own cases or containers that create in effect, small singular installations. The pieces are, like everything in our world, in varying states of flux, underscored by their perceived "transportability", via the carrying cases. Desire's container is the gallery...or...the store front windows from which it is seen.
 Heran glass, wood, butterflies, soil, grass. $ 450 |
 Toccareglass, wood, gold leaf, beeswax $ 420 |
 Seon glass, wood, pigment, sand. $ 420 SOLD |
 Sentire glass, wood, rose petals. $ 450 |
 Heran glass, wood, neon, fabric. $ 500 SOLD |
"Amelia's Gate" describes a recent proposal of a permanent memorial for Amelia Earhart. The work was commissioned by the city of Atchison, Kansas, the aviator's birthplace. Its proposed installation is June 1997. The work would consist of two parallel 1,400 foot long red neon elements running across the top of the Missouri River Bridge and leading into the city. At each of the two peaks of the bridge there would be one 4 kilowatt beacon set at absolute vertical. The work, visible for many miles when lit, would serve as a gateway to the city and would create a provocative aperture, particularly for airplanes.
 Amelia's Gatewood, neon, ink, colored pencil $ 3,000 |
Amrlia's Gate realized July 1997
The three smaller bridge pieces are pulled directly from my investigations into the history and legend of bridges during the Amelia Earhart commission. "The Water Bridge" originates from the stories of King Arthur and refers to a bridge which has as much water above it as below. "The Light Bridge" is a common theme in many philosophies. It describes a bridge between this world and the next made of a thin gold cord or light that only the righteous might successfully cross. These smaller works allow me to focus more directly on the ideas of bridge as place and my sensibilities as they relate to this scale of a mark in the landscape.
 The Water
Bridgeglass, wood, steel $ SOLD |
 The Light Bridgewood, glass, steel $ SOLD |
 Bridge of Sighssteel, wood $ SOLD |
- Geo. Gregory Hull - 1996
The images above were taken at the opening and therefore are somewhat spontaneous. The steel stands that the works reside on are included with the works, and unfortuneately are not pictured here.We wish to thank Dick Luten for showing up with his digital camera and taking his time to get these images to us quickly. Typically we have to get slides shot of the show and then put them on disk and then get them up here which has taken months in some cases. We have skipped over some recent shows which were all excellent in order to get you the real show of the month, please check the artists section frequently as we will add those artists' pages in the coming weeks. Thanks for visiting!
Shawn Miller- Conceptual Coordinator, 4 Star Gallery
Don't forget to check out the Gallery's History page.
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