“Scale – A Matter of Perspective” Exhibit at Massoni Art

Mother Earth by Greg Mort

Everyone is invited for the exhibition of SCALE – A Matter of Perspective at Massoni Art, from January 19 to March 4, 2018. The Chestertown First Friday Receptions are February 2, 5-8pm and March 2, 5-8pm.

The exhibit features gallery artists: Heidi Fowler, Blake Conroy, Ken Schiano, Marcy Dunn Ramsey, Alessandra Manzotti, Grace Mitchell, Greg Mort, Jon Mort, Anne Nielsen, Shelley Robzen, Eve Stockton, Vicco von Voss, Zemma Mastin White, Leigh Wen and special guest artists.

Little did we know when selecting SCALE as the title for our January exhibition that we would be following in the footsteps of the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture. Our points of departure vary but the theme resonates for both.

Harvard’s exhibition examines the concept of scale and its power to transform perceptions of the world and our place in it.

“Scale has long captivated the human imagination, as evidenced in classics such as Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and in today’s popular movies and television shows. Featuring a wide selection of microscopes and telescopes from the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments and an array o fmodels, miniatures, and cultural and scientific artifacts from collections across the University, the exhibition will challenge visitors to make connections to the world in surprising new ways.” HMSC

The gallery title was initially inspired by a simple contemplation of how artists convey meaning in the scale they choose to create a work of art. Will it be large or small, or somewhere in between? How is this related to the way we measure the importance of things, i.e., on a scale of one to ten or by concepts such as greater or lesser?

The work of many of the artists we are showcasing reflects significant environmental concerns, concerns shared by many other disciplines worldwide. The scale of the problems we contemplate is enormous, but artists are bound by physical realities to a relatively small physical scale. Can something very small still convey a “greater” meaning? This is perhaps the artist’s challenge.

Harvard chose to highlight the tools and artifacts created by man to understand scale and thereby challenge their audience to make connections to the world in new ways. Artists bring their individual skills and creativity to provide a response to this question. Transforming perceptions of the world and our place in it serves as a catalyst and a vast canvas for the voice of the artist.

To see the world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower; Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour.

“To See a World….” (Fragments from “Auguries of Innocence”) William Blake