Madeleine Altmann
Curated by Amy Halliday
October 12—November 10, 2016
Madeleine Altmann (81F) tracks personal paths through places imbued with centuries of cultural and historical significance, most notably Massachusetts’ well-trodden Transcendentalist tradition. She is deeply invested in Rebecca Solnit’s notion of walking as “subject” rather than merely practical locomotion—walking as a universal, amateur act invested with myriad meanings: philosophical and spiritual, revolutionary and aesthetic, everyday and transcendent.
Many of the works take sculptural form, composed, in collaboration with partner Andreas Uthoff, from a series of old cathode ray tube monitors, or stacked vertically in a cascade of obsolete technologies, at odds with the seemingly timeless landscapes their surfaces project.
In a fast-paced, media-saturated environment, Altmann’s pieces invite the viewer to slow down and be absorbed by luxurious color, captivating textures, and elements of rhythm and repetition. They prompt a reconsideration of the politics and poetics of the simple act of walking in nature in a post-industrial moment.
