Congratulations to María Elena González on the opening of her solo exhibition, Tree Talk, at Mills College Art Museum!
This exhibition marks the culmination of Tree Talk, a series of work developed over 10 years by internationally recognized Brooklyn and Bay-Area based artist María Elena González.
Exploring the translation between the physical and the acoustical, Tree Talk investigates the unexpected visual parallels between the bark of birch trees and cylindrical player piano rolls. González transcribed the distinctive bark pattern from three birch trees found at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, and each tree produced unique individual compositions for player piano rolls. Related drawings, prints, video, and sound installation are featured in the exhibition, demonstrating González's interest in both representations of sound as well as sound as a sculptural material. Programming during the exhibition will include a live performance featuring Mills music students using drawings of the tree bark as graphic scores.
This exhibition opens January 23rd, 2019 and remains on view until March 17th, 2019. The reception for the artist is on January 26th, from 5-7pm.
On February 6th, 2019, Marc Zollinger, John Ivers, and Dirt and Copper will perform works generated from María Elena González' birch tree rubbings which will be on display for Tree Talk. In collaboration with González, the composers translate the visual, gestural, and topographic data found in the tree rubbings into scores to be premiered at the event. This transmission of information from optical to aural describes synesthesia: the phenomena by which the stimulation of one sensory receptor, such as vision, activates a secondary sensory reaction, such as hearing.
Mills College Art Museum
5000 MacArthur Boulevard
Oakland, CA 94613
Information: 510.430.2164
Directions: 510.430.3250