August 31 - October 15, 2004

How do you mark the tenth anniversary of an experiment -- one based on challenging traditions? Back From SPACELab: 10 Years of Innovation, on view from August 31st through October 15th, celebrates the tenth anniversary of SPACELab at SPACES Gallery and kicks off the next ten years by affirming the spirit of innovation. Back From SPACELab invites ten former SPACELab artists to create new installations, which we present alongside photographic documentation of their original projects. Join us for the opening reception on Friday, September 10th from 5-9pm. Both the opening and the exhibition are free and open to the public.

Established in 1994, SPACELab is a program of three-week exhibitions that encourage artists, including students, to take risks with timely, experimental projects. Because of SPACELab, the gallery has offered more than 100 professional and student artists, often for the first time in their careers, the opportunity to take creative control of a space. The ten alumni artists in Back From SPACELab come from across the country and are all at different stages in their artistic careers. This project asks them to reflect on how their work has evolved and been changed by SPACELab, and to continue the dialogue with viewers that their original installations began. As in all SPACELab exhibitions, the artists are given free reign to create their space, take risks, and experiment with new ideas. This time, their projects fill the entire 5,500 square foot gallery.

SPACELab has always encouraged artists to create a spectacle out of ordinary space. Viewers who entered the 2003 installation by Andrea Loefke (Brooklyn, NY) initially saw two sets of plainly constructed stairs beneath a dropped ceiling of blue styrofoam. Curious visitors who climbed the stairs were rewarded with an enchanted miniature landscape above. Using paper, wallpaper, foam, fabric, yellow vinyl, and pipe cleaners, Loefke has created a new playful sculptural installation spanning from wall to floor to column. David Cudney's (Chamisal, NM) installation of painted walls and water-tanks fluidly transforms an entire room with light, motion, sound, and color. Diana Al-Hadid (Richmond, VA) has taken advantage of her larger space to build an Astroturf mountainscape.

Katarina Wong (New York, NY) created one of the first SPACELab projects in 1994, a 30 foot woven net that changed over time as salt water reacted with woven metal and hair. Wong now presents a site-specific wall installation featuring an accumulation of wax-cast fingerprints of believers in the work of the Dalai Lama. Painted marks based on the shadows of the small casts form a cloud that becomes a visual metaphor for the Buddhist idea that thoughts and emotions are fleeting and ever-changing. Visual impact built through looking, gathering, collecting, or accumulating is echoed in the works of other artists in the exhibition. Anton Sinkewich (Houston, TX) has been collecting images of hundreds of book dedication pages, which he uses as raw material for his new video installation. Norwood Viviano (Kalamazoo, MI) creates sculptures based on artifacts he has gathered through research into early 20th century European immigration to New York, including the trip made by his own ancestors.

Such private stories intertwine with public culture in several of the projects in Back From SPACELab. Alison O'Daniel (Plano, TX) creates a site for the exploration of intimate relationships: a 10-person bed surrounded by TV sets and video players. At the opening reception, 9 of O'Daniel's friends will perform with her in the installation. Viewers will then be invited to interact with the piece, simultaneously experiencing the movie on TV and the subtle story told by the imprints left by other people in the bed itself. In 2002 Angela White (Akron, OH) directed a public performance of architectural fashion made from discarded building blueprints. White now reincarnates one of her garbage-garments, a billowing ball gown of blue plastic grocery bags. She transforms the simple act of storing the dress into a visual poem about art's "life after exhibition." Dennis Dukeman (Akron, OH) presents a video installation that literally draws connections in the sand between the public realm of bicycle racing and the private place of making art. Angela Willcocks' (Atlanta, GA) postcard size videos intimately interpret the seven deadly sins through the lens of contemporary American consumerist, terror-obsessed society.

SPECIAL EVENTS
Friday, September 10, 5-9pm
Opening Reception
Music provided by deviant and

September 17&18
Friday, 6-10pm: SPACES is open late for Sparx in the City's Urban Gallery Hop with live music, interactive art, and refreshments. Can't do Friday? Make a day of it on Saturday, 10am-6pm, and catch Lolley the Trolley from SPACES to dozens of other arts events around downtown. Free and open to the public. Visit www.cleveland.com/sparx or call SPACES at 216-621-2314 for details.

Friday, Oct 15
6pm: Panel Discussion
Join us for the grand finale of the Back From SPACELab exhibition with Out of the Lab: Artists Emerge, a conversation between young artists about how to flourish after art school. Art students and recent graduates, take note! This panel discussion features SPACES World Artists Program residents Katarina Wong (New York, NY) and Katarina Sevic (Budapest, Hungary), along with area artists Kristen Baumliér and Royden Watson. Free and open to the public.

8-11pm: After the panel, stick around for the kick-off of Friday Night Live: Art, Music & More, an ongoing series of casual evenings of live performances in the gallery. $5 admission at the door, with special perks for SPACES members. Call us at 216-621-2314 for details.

Diana Al-Hadid

David Cudney

Dennis Dukeman

Andrea Loefke

Alison O'Daniel

Anton Sinkewich

Norwood Viviano

Angela White

Angela Willcocks

Katarina Wong

SPACES is a non-profit, artist-run, alternative space gallery. Since 1978, SPACES has given over 8,000 artists in the visual and performing arts an arena in which to present challenging new ideas. SPACES is located at 2220 Superior Viaduct on the West side of the Flats. Superior Viaduct runs parallel to the Detroit Superior Bridge at the intersection of West 25th Street.

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