Griggs Curatorial Projects‎ > ‎

Mapping Heaven



Mapping Heaven 
Front Room Gallery

147 Roebling St  Brooklyn, NY 11211 +1 718-782-2556
Soft Opening - Monday, November 22, 2013
Reception - Friday, December 13th, 2013 7-9pm
as part of 
Williamsburg Every Second Friday gallery night

Gallery Hours Friday — Sunday 1 - 6pm 
and by appointment 






Mapping Heaven explores the intersection between diagramming or mapping and the yearning for understanding the bliss, terror, beauty and overwhelming immensity of the universe as a spiritual place. 


BABETTE ALLINA <> SALLY CURCIO <> ALLEN HANSEN <> DENNIS HLYNSKY 
THOMAS LYON MILLS <> IGOR MOLOCHEVSKI <> LINDSEY NOBEL 
ANNE LAPRADE SEUTHE <> PATRICIA SMITH <> LARRY WALCZAK


The idea for the show has its genesis in "Darwin's God" by Robin Marantz Henig, a March 4th, 2007, New York Times Magazine article which discussed Stephen Jay Gould's idea of religion as a spandrel in the evolutionary biology of the brain.

A spandrel in architecture is the triangular space between the shoulders of two arches and the ceiling above it. Spandrels are a byproduct of the architect's intent to hold up a ceiling or dome with a colonnaded row. There was never any intent to make a spandrel.

Stephen Jay Gould appropriated this architectural term to describe religion as a byproduct of the evolutionary tools of agent detection, causal reasoning and theory of mind. Those who cherish religious belief need not be offended. Wouldn't "Intelligent Design" preprogram our brains to search for God. 

Gould's choice of an architectural term becomes poetic when viewing art that explores mapping and the diagram as a metaphor. As Thomas Lyon Mills, artist and educator, wrote,
"Like mapmakers, we draw and paint what we observe, but find our drawings inevitably cross over into the unknown, for, like maps, they are never truly,
wholly accurate, never allowing for shifting points of view, or even the necessity of dreams. This then, is our region—where the visible and invisible meet, where the observed and the intuitive lie side by side, and where the seen pays a constant debt to the unseen." 

There is a visual overlap in the appearance of diagraming and mapping even though one helps you understand something and the other helps you find someplace. But when the thing and place are unknowable, it's hardly a meaningful distinction. 

Artist Dennis Hlynsky notes that "One of the diagram’s most intriguing aspects is how it allows us to see a mind at work, thinking things out on paper, unconcerned about whether others will find that thinking coherent. Diagrams can easily leap time and space, bridging unlike ideas and giving form to otherwise impossible notions or invisible plots." 


Linda@linda Griggs 
917 496-7058 
Past Curatorial Projects 


  INSTALLATION VIEWS   PRESS

DENNIS HLYNSKY
Single Channel Video
Dennis Hlynsky Snapshot 2013-05-16 20-23-23



 BABETTE ALLINA
Installation
Projection of the extreme tides on the Bay of Fundy on racing sails

1011911_397129430406582_300865027_n 


IGOR MOLOCHEVSKI
Installation 
When the gallery visitor turns the mallet in the Tibetan Singing Bowl
the sound generated affects the geometry projected onto the wall 

back2

Pages from invisible beast




THOMAS LYON MILLS
Mixed Media on Paper 

Catacomb 43 




PATRICIA SMITH 
Painting on Rubber
smith_close-900x568





Lindsey Nobel
Mixed Media

photo 1 








ANNE LEPRADE SEUTHE
Painting
Mapping Heaven In Progress 4 Linda Griggs 




ALLEN HANSEN
Painting & Drawing
studio shots drawings 001

DSC03778





Larry Walczak
Collage
Y MOLLYcule 30_ by 30_ draft-01





SALLY CURCIO
Sculpture
Mixed media beaded sculpture 
based on Google Map images

Curcio_Happy_Valley 

Curcio_Happy_Valley det 

Curcio_Orbit_City 





INSTALLATION SHOTS 

Dennis Hlynsky's video projected onto window of Front Room Gallery
IMAG0506 



Babette Alina
Projection of the extreme tides on the Bay of Fundy on racing sailsDSC04185 
03 imagejpeg_0_3 

Igor Molochevski
Vibrations from the Tibetan Singing Bowl affect 
the visualization of the geometric equation 
projected on the wall 
IMAG0517 
DSC07612b 

Thomas Lyon Mills and Allen Hansen 
06 DSC04130 

Allen Hansen 
07 DSC04133 

Allen Hansen and Lindsey Nobel
08 DSC04136 

Allen Hansen, Lindsey Nobel, Sally Curcio, and
Dennis Hlynsky
 2 DSC00040 

Lindsey Nobel and Dennis Hlynsky
10 DSC04139 

Dennis Hlynsky and Patricia Smith
11 DSC04142 

Lindsey Nobel, Dennis Hlynsy and Patricia Smith
12 DSC00045 

Lindsey Nobel, Sally Curcio, and Dennis Hlynsky
 13 DSC07608 

Lindsey Nobel, Sally Curcio, Dennis Hlynsky, 
Patricia Smith, and Sally Curcio
4 DSC00041 

Patricia Smith and Sally Curcio
15 DSC04145 

Dennis Hlynsky (projection on window), Sally
Curcio, Larry Walczak, and Anne LePrade Seuthe
16 DSC00043 

Sally Curcio and Larry Walczak
6a IMAG0451 

Larky Walczak, Sally Curcio, 
and Anne LePrade Seuthe
18 DSC04163 

Anne LePrade Seuthe, Babette Alina, 
and Thomas Lyon Mills
19 DSC04165 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT 
LINDA GRIGGS at 917 496-7058 or Linda@lindaGriggs.com
or FRONT ROOM GALLERY +1 718-782-2556
147 Roebling St  Brooklyn, NY 11211, United States 







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