Princeton NJ Museums and Galleries Press Releases

The Arts Council of Princeton Presents Reinventing the Wheel: An Exhibition About Wheels and Round Things and Chakaia Booker May 8 – July 2, 2010

The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP), with its home in the Michael Graves designed Paul Robeson Center for the Arts in downtown Princeton, encourages artists to explore themes and concepts that challenge, motivate and inspire. Reinventing the Wheel is just such a project. Organized by sculptor John Goodyear, with the artists group MOVIS, the exhibition explores the advances, and pitfalls, of progress. Concurrent with Reinventing the Wheel is Terrace Project: Chakaia Booker, an outdoor installation of sculptures made from cut automobile tires.

Reinventing the Wheel and Terrace Project: Chakaia Booker will be on view at the Paul Robeson Center for the Arts at 102 Witherspoon Street, Princeton, NJ from May 8 – July 2, 2010. A reception for the artists will take place on Saturday May 8, 2010, from 4-6 pm. The exhibition and reception are FREE.

The exhibiting artists in Reinventing the Wheel include Rita Z. Asch, Berendina Buist, Brian Goings, John Goodyear, Geoffrey Hendricks, Susan Hockaday, Eve Ingalls, Margaret Kennard Johnson, Joshua Kirsch, Ji Lee, Marsha Levin-Rojer, Frank
Magalhaes, Linda Mannheim, Carlo Maria Mariani, Francois Morelli, Paul Muldoon, Hugo B. Rodrigues, Richard Salafia, and Sarah Stengle. In addition are documentation and related works by Charlie Chaplin, Marcel Duchamp, and Paul Robeson.

The wheel has been around a long time and it has been constantly reinvented ever since a log rolled under a heavy load.   Reinventing the Wheel speaks to an aspect of creativity and also to the dominance of the wheel and the mobility of ‘modern times,’ perhaps a debt to Charlie Chaplin’s film by that name.  In the landmark film, “Modern Times,” 1936, Chaplin used the wheel as a symbol of the evils of the modern industrial age.  The exhibit also addresses Marcel Duchamp’s first readymade, an ordinary bicycle wheel which he transformed into an artwork.  This single act started a movement that invigorated the field of visual art ever since. Replicas of Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel of 1913 are in the show. 

Artists’ wheels in this exhibition are reshaped, shredded, enlarged, miniaturized, suspended, combined with other objects, painted on a plate, made entirely of foreign materials or created by moiré pattern and shadow.  Artworks are invented by changing the function of wheels, perhaps also by the simple act of putting particular wheels into an artistic context, or by doing the opposite, putting a simulated artwork out in the town.

The show also embraces the new Paul Robeson Center building itself, designed by the renowned architect Michael Graves.  The building features a number of prominent circular geometric forms; a rounded facade and a wheel-shaped window. The outdoor constructions made of cut automobile tires by Chakaia Booker continue to be shown on the Michael Graves sculpture terrace on the Witherspoon Street side of the building, which is across from the Princeton Public Library in downtown Princeton.

The Arts Council of Princeton (ACP), founded in 1967, is a non-profit organization with a mission of Building Community through the Arts. The ACP fulfills its mission by presenting a wide range of programs including exhibitions, performances, free community cultural events, and studio-based classes and workshops in the visual, performing and literary arts. Arts Council of Princeton programs are designed to be high-quality, engaging, affordable and accessible for the diverse population in the greater Princeton region.  Funding for Arts Council of Princeton exhibitions and related programs is provided by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and NRG.
 
Gallery Hours are: Monday – Friday: 9:00am– 5:00pm, Saturday: 10 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. More information at www.artscouncilofprinceton.org or call 609-924-8777. Parking is available in the Spring and Hulfish Street Garages as well as metered parking along Witherspoon Street and Paul Robeson Place.
 
Media contact Sabrina Osse at sosse@artscouncilofprinceton.org or call 609-924-8777 for more information.