• 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 model for knowledge exchange that is sustained by public participation. Within each Sponge workshop an eccentric collection of topics is knit together to reveal a set of unexpected relationships. Day one of each workshop is for absorbing information. Day two asks participants to wring out  by delivering expert presentations of their own.

Each workshop includes hands-on projects, visiting experts (or sponges: those who are saturated with the knowledge of their field), projected films, the design of a headquarters, and the assembly of a Sponge Reader. Sponges exist in two phases. The first is experiential, designed for the participants. The second phase is perceptual; it is meant to present the spirit of Sponge to non-participant viewers.

The basic tenets of the project are immersion, absorption, and connection-making.

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's work is an ongoing investigation of the way knowledge is absorbed, exchanged, and represented.

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 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 at Kunst-Werke in 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 program at Vermont College, and a visiting artist at institutions including Maine College of Art, Des Moines Art Center, and at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT. Ginsburg lives and works in Richmond, Virginia, where she is Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts.

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