Opening Fri 3/28 @ 7pm
Artist talk Thu 5/1 @ 7 pm
By Hollie Gibbs
Walk up to the void and experience the darkest thing you’ve ever seen. Stare into the abyss of total blackness and challenge your notions of perception.
Jordan Tate unveils his black hole installation, SUPERBLACK at the Transformer Station on Fri 3/28. The piece uses NASA-developed carbon nanotubes, a material made of the darkest known matter on Earth. Tate created the installation with the assistance of research scientists at the University of Cincinnati where he is an assistant professor of photography/ fine art.
“While I was fortunate enough to work with some incredible researchers on this project, I make no claims to be a scientist nor do I want to engage in a scientific dialogue beyond my fascination with the context and clarity that quantified research can provide,” he explained. “This piece, for me, is unquestionably an artwork.
“To me, it is deeply representative of certain systems and dualities that govern our perception, but my hope is that it will serve as a visual foil – something that throws the subjectivity of your perception into sharp relief.”
The SUPERBLACK exhibit displays an additional sculpture and five photographs, including digital renderings of space and photographs taken on Mars by NASAʼs` Curiosity Rover. In ways, they reflect different properties of darkness and shine a light on perception.
“Broadly, all of the pieces in the exhibition examine systems that govern our experiences, either through the function and limitations of our perception, the mediation of the photograph on our non-lived experiences, or the role of institutions in setting the context that informs our understandings,” Tate said.
The show examines the duality of physical reality and ideas of space and time.
Light and Dark. Black and white. Physicality and spirituality.
Information and experience.
Shadows and substance.
Truth and invention.
SUPERBLACK begs the question of the viewer, “When you view something that has no means of registering in your mind, what do you see?”
SUPERBLACK runs as a concurrent show with Christian Patterson’s Redheaded Peckerwood at the Transformer Station March 29 – June 14, with a public opening party featuring DJ Christopher Eff, refreshments and a cash bar on Friday, March 28, from 7 to 9 p.m. Both Tate’s new book “SUPERBLACK” and Patterson’s award-winning third edition of “Redheaded Peckerwood” will be available there for purchase.
Jordan Tate and contributor and independent curator Lisa Kurzner will discuss Jordan’s work and take audience questions on Thursday, May 1, at 7 p.m. at the Transformer Station.
Hollie Gibbs has a BS in journalism from Kent State University and studied photography at School of the Visual Arts in Manhattan. Her articles and photographs have appeared in numerous local and national publications. She can also be found playing guitar with various bands and building life-size monster props.
Cleveland, OH 44113