• Wall design by Leah Beeferman
• Sound design by Stephen Vitiello with contributions by Dr. Brian Bingham and Ann Kroeber.
• Web design by Jonathan Keller
• Slide show by Dana Sherwood

Solvent Space, Plant Zero Arts Complex
Hull & 4th Streets, Richmond, VA

Solvent Space is a project of the School of the Arts and The Department of Painting and Printmaking at Virginia Commonwealth University, in cooperation with Plant Zero.

Hours

In addition to programmed spongespace events, the gallery will be open at the following times (except holidays):

• Tuesday 12–4pm
• Thursday 12–4pm
• Saturday 12–4pm

spongespace is an immersive environment designed to host three Sponge workshops. The exhibition includes two large wall-paintings, a soundscape, a projection screen for viewing films, and a continually looping slide show of an Indonesian reef at low tide. One room has been transformed into a functioning feltmaking studio, which houses artifacts from past workshops. Also included in the studio are objects from past projects that have foreshadowed Sponge.

Sponge is a teaching, learning and discipline-bending project.

Sponge events are free and open to the public. They have ranged from two to five days. One Sponge took place in an afternoon.

Past Sponge topics have included: undersea life, Mongolian craft, art & industry, utopia, ice cream making, deep ocean navigating, sound art, urban ecology, and fish bioacoustics.

During the "absorb-a-thon" days of the events, participants do hands-on projects, go on field trips, meet with visiting experts, see films, and collect things to read.

Participants "wring-out" at the end of each Sponge by delivering expert presentations of their own. In keeping with the metaphor of sea-sponge reproduction (if a sea-sponge is placed in a blender, each bit will grow into an adult sponge), participants are encouraged to spread the Sponge model by conducting future events.

To view past Sponge events, click here.

Hope Ginsburg was born in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania in 1974. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture from Tyler School of Art (1996) and a Master of Science in Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2007). Ginsburg is the recipient of MIT’s Harold and Arlene Schnitzer Prize in the Visual Arts (2007) as well as MIT’s Laya and Jerome B. Wiesner Award (2007). She has exhibited her work at venues such as P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, The Baltimore Museum of Art, the Wexner Center for the Arts, SculptureCenter, Socrates Sculpture Park, American Fine Arts, and Kunst-Werke Berlin. In addition, she has had solo exhibitions at Solvent Space in Richmond, Virginia as well as the Julia Friedman Gallery and Parlour Projects in New York. She has been an artist-teacher in the MFA programs at Vermont College and Maine College of Art, and a visiting artist at institutions including Des Moines Art Center and the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT.

Ginsburg currently lives and works in Richmond, Virginia, where she is Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts. Her work is an ongoing investigation of the way knowledge is absorbed, exchanged, and represented.

Production by Liz Clark

Special thanks to:

• Richard Roth
• Ron Johnson
• Arthur Hash
• Jack Risley

Installation support by:

• Leah Beeferman
• Natalie Bray
• Derek Cavanaugh
• Diana Cavanaugh
• Mia Feuer
• Mary Hale
• Amy Hauft
• Sarah Kaufman
• Amy Madden
• Gena Peditto
• Christopher Quirk
• Brian Taylor

Audio equipment on loan from the Contemporary Art Center of Virginia

spongespace is funded by the Painting and Printmaking Department of the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts

spongespace.net is funded by a Dean's Grant from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts

Solvent Space, Plant Zero Arts Complex
Hull & 4th Streets, Richmond, VA

Sponge is an experience in total immersion. In two absorb-a-thon days, visit one flock of sheep, make two felt projects, and watch one film about Tuvan throat-singing. Based on the model of sea sponge reproduction, you will leave the workshop prepared to lead a Sponge of your own.

• Free and open to the public.
• Advance Registration required (form to the right).
• Participation is limited to 10 adults.
• Participants required to attend both days of the workshop.

Investigate the relationship between water and sound waves. Visit an aquarium, watch a film about the depths of the ocean, and listen to presentations by a sound artist, an oceanographic robotics engineer and a fish neurobiologist. Leave the workshop prepared to lead a Sponge of your own.

Sponge presentations by:

• Oceanographic robotics engineer Dr. Brian Bingham, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering and visitingscientist at the Wood Hole Oceanographic Institution.
• Neurobiologist and bioacoustician Dr. Michael Fine, Professor of Biology at VCU.
• Sound artist Stephen Vitiello, Assistant Professor in the Kinetic Imaging Department at VCU and Archivist at The Kitchen in NYC.

• Free and open to the public.
• Advance Registration required (form to the right).
• Participation is limited to 10 adults.
• Participants required to attend both days of the workshop.

Meta-Sponge investigates the Sponge project from the point of view of a magazine editor, two curators, and an urban ecologist. See presentations on juxtaposition and collage in editing, immersive research, non-institutionalized learning and notions of landscape. Leave the Meta-Sponge prepared to lead a workshop of your own.

Sponge presentations by:

• Curator Larissa Harris, Associate Director of MIT's Center for Advanced Visual Studies.
• Curator Denise Markonish, Mass MoCA.
• Writer & editor Elizabeth Schambelan, Senior Editor at Artforum.
• Urban Ecologist & Architect Lisa Taranto, Director of Richmond-based Tricycle Gardens.

• Free and open to the public.
• Advance Registration required (form to the right).
• Participation is limited to 10 adults.
• Participants required to attend both days of the workshop.

To register for a workshop or to contact Hope, please fill out the form below.

name:

email:

phone (optional):

comments:

Send