From left:
BIS-CAL Brain.
SHU-SUB Sound.
CAL-CHA Cephalopoda.
Three examples of work
by contemporary artist
Antonia Contro.
Antonia Contro: The Observer
Fall, 2010
The moment of entry into Brushwood, the historic home at Ryerson Woods, always feels a bit like a step back in time. It’s a well-made house with quiet rooms and plaster walls, and if you’ve been out in the bright sun, it takes a moment for your eyes to adjust. Ahead of you, down the hallway and through the back door, more nature is visible as the protected land rolls westward. To your left is the library, its shelves filled with field guides and nature books. This September, your moment of entry into Brushwood will feel even more transformative with an installation of work by artist Antonia Contro. “Complex, minimal and elegant” is how Friends’ assistant director Deb Donnelley characterizes Contro’s work. The collages,
sculptures and books of Contro’s that will be on exhibit in the upcoming show, called The Observer, support Donnelley’s assertion.
Throughout Brushwood, existing volumes and furnishings will be temporarily relocated. In their place will be other books made by Contro and book-like pieces of art. In one, philosophy, the cover opens to reveal a light box with an image of a single cloud in a deep blue sky. Others hold unexpected drawings and objects. The executive director of Marwen as well as a practicing artist, Contro describes her own work as conveying the rhythm between “the grand and the diminutive, the specific and the impressionistic, that which is known and that which is only sensed.” A great deal of her work and interests have ties to nature and science, making Ryerson Woods an intriguing venue for it. “The site of Ryerson Woods becomes part of the work,” says Contro. “The work would be less complete without that contextualization.”
Contro’s first attempt to place her work within the mission and aesthetic of an institution was with the Newberry Library in 2006, with an ambitious, first-of-its-kind (for the Newberry) show called Closed and Open. In 2007, she created Field Guide, a site-specific installation at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. “The fact that Ryerson Woods provides an opportunity to show my work in a place that was built in nature for the
exploration of nature, for scientific investigation, and as a kind of retreat was very attractive,” says Contro. “And the people at Ryerson are so
open to expansive ideas about what can happen in this place.”
If weather permits, on the day of the opening some work may be installed outdoors. But for the duration of the show inside Brushwood, visitors should expect a sense of surprise and wonder. “While I want them to be engaged in the work as they perambulate through that space, I also hope the installation will heighten their awareness of this place,” Contro says.
sculptures and books of Contro’s that will be on exhibit in the upcoming show, called The Observer, support Donnelley’s assertion.
Throughout Brushwood, existing volumes and furnishings will be temporarily relocated. In their place will be other books made by Contro and book-like pieces of art. In one, philosophy, the cover opens to reveal a light box with an image of a single cloud in a deep blue sky. Others hold unexpected drawings and objects. The executive director of Marwen as well as a practicing artist, Contro describes her own work as conveying the rhythm between “the grand and the diminutive, the specific and the impressionistic, that which is known and that which is only sensed.” A great deal of her work and interests have ties to nature and science, making Ryerson Woods an intriguing venue for it. “The site of Ryerson Woods becomes part of the work,” says Contro. “The work would be less complete without that contextualization.”
Contro’s first attempt to place her work within the mission and aesthetic of an institution was with the Newberry Library in 2006, with an ambitious, first-of-its-kind (for the Newberry) show called Closed and Open. In 2007, she created Field Guide, a site-specific installation at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum. “The fact that Ryerson Woods provides an opportunity to show my work in a place that was built in nature for the
exploration of nature, for scientific investigation, and as a kind of retreat was very attractive,” says Contro. “And the people at Ryerson are so
open to expansive ideas about what can happen in this place.”
If weather permits, on the day of the opening some work may be installed outdoors. But for the duration of the show inside Brushwood, visitors should expect a sense of surprise and wonder. “While I want them to be engaged in the work as they perambulate through that space, I also hope the installation will heighten their awareness of this place,” Contro says.
