Rachel Berwick
The Tasmanian tiger, known to us only through bone fragments and the brief 1920s film that documented its vanishing. A language recovered from an ancient parrot taught to speak it by a long-dead member of a vanished South American tribe. The Coelacanth, a fish believed long extinct but rediscovered in this century, a living fossil. These are among the losses restored through Rachel Berwick's remarkable installations and exhibits. In her work, which relies on media as diverse as video, resin, bone fragments, and living birds, Berwick has long focused on questions of temporality and extinction, using a lens at once scientific and personal to consider our drive to collect and to recollect. Her work has appeared widely in exhibitions including the 26th Bienal de Sao Paolo, Brazil; the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France; the 7th International Istanbul Bienal; the Serpentine Gallery in London; and, a one-person show at Brent Sikkema (November '04), the gallery that represents her. She is an Associate Professor and the head of the Department of Glass at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Rachel's "
A Vanishing" will be installed at the
Salt Lake Art Center (20 South West Temple)
