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Bruce Bemis at the Mills, the dictionary at Brickbottom, and Isabellas galore at the Gardner
BY RANDI HOPKINS
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The lure of the sea has called out to artists of all sorts: the Dutch painters of the 16th and 17th centuries; J.M.W. Turner and Winslow Homer; 20th-century conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader, who died, or disappeared, off the coast of Cape Cod in 1975 in an attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a 13-foot sailboat as a work of performance art. They’ve been drawn to its vastness, its changing light, its metaphorical power and its physical intensity. In "Bruce Bemis: Reciprocal Illumination," which opens this Friday at the Mills Gallery at the Boston Center for the Arts, Bemis turns to the coast of Gloucester for inspiration. His usual tack is to create sculptural installations using found film footage emanating from noisy vintage projectors (sometimes projected directly onto unexpected architectural features such as window shades or door frames, with film strips looping and draping). Here, however, Bemis has opted to show film he’s shot himself, and to use video projectors instead of old film projectors. Footage of bobbing surfers and the swirling ocean reflect his interest in repetition and rhythm, two of the key building blocks of cinema. "The quality of emotion and motion is strikingly similar in feel to his earlier work," exhibition curator and Mills Gallery director Laura Donaldson writes about his new approach, "but instead of looking to find the movement or elusive moment in someone else’s footage, he has from the start created the moment and movement in his own footage. . . . His use of rhythm, always an important element of his work, has been allowed to grow more complex." Bemis and Donaldson will be on hand to provide behind-the-scenes insight into this intriguing show in a free gallery talk at the Mills on April 21 at 6 p.m. Bookworms and literati take note: a new exhibition in Somerville draws its inspiration from a chance find by artist Annie Silverman, who happened upon a discarded copy of the New Century Dictionary (copyright 1957) in the trash last winter. The tome was unusual in that the pages were held together with long, removable screw posts, which Silverman at once set about removing. After liberating more than 1000 triple-hole-punched pages, she offered these treasures to some 50 local, national, and international artists and writers, asking them to use the pages as jumping off points for original works of art and poetry. The results are on view in "The Dictionary Project" at the Brickbottom Gallery, which hosts a free opening reception on April 10 from 3 to 5 p.m. Did you know that anyone named Isabella enjoys free admission to the wonderful Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum? It’s true — and on April 20, the museum celebrates its annual "Calling All Isabellas Day," further honoring those lucky few (and their families) with doughnuts (Mrs. Jack loved them) and more. This is also the time of year that the Gardner installs its 20-foot cascading flowering nasturtium vines, an extraordinary sight that’s a great reason to visit or revisit this little bit of Venice on the Fenway. "Bruce Bemis: Reciprocal Illumination" is at the Mills Gallery in the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street in the South End, April 8 through June 5, with a free opening reception on April 8 from 6 to 8 p.m. and a free gallery talk with curator and artist on April 21 at 6 p.m.; call (617) 426-8835. "The Dictionary Project" is at Brickbottom Gallery, 1 Fitchburg Street in Somerville, through May 14, with a free opening reception on April 10 from 3 to 5 p.m.; call (617) 776-3410. April 20 is "Calling All Isabellas Day," and the flowering nasturtium vines will be installed on April 12 at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 the Fenway in Boston; call (617) 566-1401.
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