Two Concurrent Exhibits at Schaefer International Gallery

By Maui Now Staff

Schaefer International Gallery at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center will feature two concurrent exhibits—Lærke Lauta: Unconscious Nature and Mary Babcock: Breaking Ground—from Aug. 2 through Oct. 3.

Lauta, from Copenhagen, Denmark, works within multichannel video, installation and painting. Her two newly created videos, Pressure Drop and Triad, build on internal tension and unresolved conflict, with women as primary figures.

Her stories have surreal and abstract elements inspired by architecture and environments that support the suspense. Many of her video ideas begin with painted studies, which will also be on display.

As filmmaker, Lauta channels us with precise direction to open-ended conclusions, leaving us transfixed.

Babcock investigates fiber processes that conceptually merge with the intersection of art, contemplation and social activism.

Breaking Ground is inspired by the Buddhist concept of groundlessness and a 2014 visit she made to the Pacific Northwest during winter. In this work, she transforms the memory of a natural world of frozen river beds with fractured life forms moving underneath, into idea.

The grounding point for her work is the activity metaphorically inherent in fiber processes such as stitching, mending, binding, weaving and piercing.

Babcock is creating a large scale interior installation in the Schaefer International Gallery with hand-sewn layers of wax paper.

Schaefer International Gallery is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and before Castle Theater shows and during intermissions. Admission is free.

The exhibit is supported in part by the Danish Arts Foundation, with additional support from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority and the County of Maui Office of Economic Development.