LOOM•ROOM•HARP
September 30th, 2021
Fırat Erdim, Tim Ingold, Leah Kalmanson, Paula Matthusen, Olivia Valentine
LOOM · ROOM · HARP weaves together inside and outside, near and far, visible and invisible, artifacts of the past and actions in the present, through the infilled colonnade of the Anderson Gallery at Drake University, in Des Moines, Iowa. This site-specific installation and series of performances taking place periodically from September 2 through October 15, 2021, is a collaboration between Fırat Erdim, Paula Matthusen, and Olivia Valentine.
The performances are accessible both in-person and online, via the loom-room-harp.space website and Sunship, the website of the Arts Letters & Numbers 2021 Venice Architecture Biennale Italian Virtual Pavilion at artslettersandnumbers.org.
Throughout the course of the exhibition, the gallery contains dynamic visual and audio artifacts of the periodic performances. Together, these artifacts, performances, and other components of the installation seek to permeate interior with exterior, here with there, now with then.
Fırat Erdim — https://firaterdim.net/
Whether with chisel, cast shadow, sprayed ink, or the tow line of a kite, Fırat Erdim’s practice investigates the intersections of projection, place, and materiality to question axioms of architectural imagination. His work has been exhibited at the Spartanburg Art Museum (South Carolina), Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (Copenhagen, Denmark), Elmhurst Art Museum (Illinois), The Windor (Madrid, Spain), and Maquis Projects (İzmir, Turkey), among others. This work has been supported by residencies at Sculpture Space (New York), Heima (Seyðisfjörður, Iceland), I-Park (Connecticut), Babayan Culture House (Cappadocia, Turkey), Vermont Studio Center, and the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest (Kentucky). Awards include a 2016 Santo Foundation Award for Individual Artists, and the 2014 Founders Rome Prize in Architecture from the American Academy in Rome. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Iowa State University.
Paula Matthusen — https://www.paulamatthusen.com/
Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. Her work often considers discrepancies in musical space—real, imagined, and remembered. Her music has been performed by Dither, Mantra Percussion, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, TIGUE, Brooklyn Rider, Loadbang, the Grossman Ensemble, among others. Her work has been performed at numerous venues and festivals in America and Europe, including the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the MusicNOW Series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the Aspen Music Festival. Matthusen is currently Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, where she teaches experimental music, composition, and music technology.
Olivia Valentine — https://oliviavalentine.net/
Olivia Valentine is a visual artist working in textile construction, drawing, and photography, as well as collaborative projects that span a variety of media and disciplines. Recent exhibitions include a solo exhibition at the Des Moines Art Center, The Museum of Arts and Design (New York), The Danish Royal Academy (Copenhagen) and the American Academy in Rome (Italy). She is the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for Installation Art in Turkey and is a 2020 Iowa Artist Fellow. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University.