Lowell Handmade Art, Music, Film, Food, Culture & More in Boston's Favorite Mill City: There's a Storm Brewing at 119 Gallery-- Reception this Saturday

Oct 20 - Nov 14, 2009 (c) Denise Dumas

Reception Saturday October 24, 3-6pm

A three-channel video projection, Make a Wish by Denise Dumas combines images of thunder storms and water with an accompanying soundtrack of voiced concerns to envelop the gallery in an electrical storm of uncertainty. Watery surfaces spill with a myriad of visions that form a layered collage of contemporary troubles. Mixing real and virtual imagery, Dumas creates multiple points of view that redefine domestic, political, ecological, social, and economic ideas.

"My work addresses psychologically charged situations, while exploring the language and its inventive uses, to visually translate aspects of human behaviour and consciousness. This takes form in the metaphorical situations I create, in which I perform, film, or use my sculptures as theatre or as actors." - Dumas

Dumas' installation is intended to empower us eliciting our resolve in the face of real and conjured threats. Like the artist, we are to summon our own sense of individual identity as a rudder to navigate through confusing circumstances and environments.

A Canadian sculptor and multi-media artist, Denise Dumas investigates boundaries and identity. As an immigrant, she is keenly aware of the borders and intersections of cultural, social and political interaction. Dumas believes that reality changes according to the environment and social context that we inhabit. She finds that current economic ills and political fears have created an insidious climate of insecurity that permeates our daily lives. Dumas' video installation is a metaphor for this troubled climate, her stormy environment mirroring the unsettling times in which we live.

After graduating from Quebec Beaux-Arts, Dumas attended the Sir John Cass College of Art in London, and Saint-Martin's School where she studied Anthony Caro, Tim Scott, and Philip King. She has an MFA in Creation from the University of Quebec. Dumas has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in galleries and museums in Canada and in the United States and has received grants and awards from the Canada Council and the Quebec Ministry of Communication and Culture, the SODAC, and from the New Hampshire Council on the Arts. She lives in Wilton, NH, and teaches at UMass Lowell.

denisedumas.wordpress.com

Made possible by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.

119 Gallery promotes contemporary and new media art, innovative ideas and cutting-edge techniques with a rich and diverse program of exhibitions, performances and community-based arts services. We welcome people of all ages, backgrounds and means to explore and experience new, innovative art.