Kenosha, WI 3/13/06 –
716 fine art gallery will unveil “Echoes of the Machine,” a sampling of Beloit artist Jack Demunnik’s sculptures, on Friday, March 16 at 6pm. Demunnik’s sculptures, which are assembled from abandoned machine parts, will be on exhibition in the gallery through April 14.
Demunnik’s work is interesting not only for the fact that he reconstructs the pieces of factory equipment that have fallen to disuse, according to Michael Anthony Lynch, Artistic Coordinator for 716.
“Jack’s exhibit is a sort of paean to Wisconsin’s industrial heritage as well as the Native American roots of the state,” Lynch says, “His work specifically deals with the history of a particular paper-making factory in Beloit by honoring a form of Native American art. But Kenosha shares that working class history and Native American influence with Beloit – and with many cities around Wisconsin and the Midwest.”
Demunnik’s work takes forms that often resemble birds, but they also call in other pop cultural references, such as his 3.5′ x 2.5′
construction, Batman-Machina, which will be on display at the gallery. As Demunnik, who is General Manager of American Industrial Art Gallery in Beloit, notes in his artistic statement, “American factory muscle needs to be represented in dramatic scale equal to its heritage and its contribution to American dominance in the Industrial Revolution.”
Demunnik refers to the pieces in his collection as ‘machinas,’ a term coined after the Native Meso-American kachinas, which were the mythical figures that protected each individual tribe. He creates them by joining individual patterns from different machines.
“These forms seem to build themselves,” Demunnik says. “The fusion of symmetry and color, historical context and contemporary design, industrial precision and mythical animation – it all works together to honor a proud American tradition that incorporates Native American history while forging ahead towards new horizons.”
“They’re very iconic figures,” Lynch says.
“This work in particular is interesting because it transforms machinery that helped make our society
and elevates it so that they can be appreciated in not only an historical, but also an aesthetic context.”
“In other words,” he laughs, “they look nice and they say something about our economy and its history.”
Images of Demunnik’s work can be found at the American Industrial Arts
gallery’s website, www.americanindustrialart.com.
Contact: David Geisler, Executive Director
716 58th Street, Kenosha WI 53140
262.654.0716
dgeisler@716fineart.org
www.716fineart.org
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