
Congratulations to Elizabeth Turk on the opening of her two-person show at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park! Double Take brings together the work of two past MacArthur Fellowship recipients, Turk and acclaimed sculptor Mel Chin. Both artists use a variety of techniques and materials in their work, focusing on themes related to the natural world: environmental protection, conservation, and endangered species. Thank you to the team at the Meijer Gardens for bringing the work of these two artists together! The exhibition remains on view through March 26, 2023.
Congratulations to Elizabeth Turk on the occasion of her solo exhibition at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, Wisconsin. Visualize avian voices via sculptures inspired by the recorded calls of extinct or endangered birds. Resembling a forest of vertical forms, the sculptures by California- and New York-based artist Elizabeth Turk are enhanced by interactive elements: scannable recordings of the lost or endangered birds’ voices. The recordings, many sourced from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, are visually represented by lines of varying lengths. After the California wildfires drastically depleted bird populations, Turk began re-orienting the sonograms vertically and into three dimensions for her sculptures. “These structures,” Turk said, “are made for interaction to prompt thought and spark conversation by begging the question, ‘Are we creating a silence?’”
While H&A is open and welcoming visitors, we understand that there are those of you who are unable to visit the gallery. As a result, we are happy to share this virtual tour of our current exhibition. Produced by Jonah Koplin, this short video allows those of you who cannot travel to the gallery a chance to enjoy Elizabeth Turk's latest body of work. We hope to see you again at the gallery soon!
Hirschl & Adler Modern is proud to present an exciting new project, Tipping Point—Echoes of Extinction, the latest body of work by the internationally-recognized sculptor Elizabeth Turk. While furthering her exploration into the overlap of art and nature, Turk confronts a globally important issue: Extinction. Tipping Point employs sculpture, sound, and technology to ask: what role can humans play in the preservation of a species, including our own? Are we at a tipping point? Turk highlights this relevant environmental concern with her Sound Columns—elegant visualizations of the lost voices of birds and sea mammals. These 27 sculptures, fabricated in wood, aluminum, 3-D printed ABS filament, and bronze, take their form directly from the calls of various animals that are, today, extinct or endangered.
The 16-page catalogue includes a checklist with links to the bird calls and aquatic mammal sounds, many archived at the Macaulay Library of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Click here to learn more about the exhibition.