Andréa Stanislav, River to Infinity—The Vanishing Points, 2008, mixed media, installation view, photo by: Gordon Huston

River to Infinity—The Vanishing Points

Friday, January 25, 2008—Sunday, March 16, 2008
MAEP Galleries
Free Exhibition

By Andréa Stanislav

Opening Reception: Thursday, January 24, from 7 to 9 p.m.

This MAEP exhibition comprises a series of reflective mirrored landscape installations designed to present cultural dualities. The work points to the convergence of manifest destiny, contemporary American environmental values, and the vanishing of the natural world by recognizing the demise of species, peoples, and, through metaphor, society.

At the same time, the exhibition celebrates the excesses and the opalescent beauty of Western culture: the work exists as a place of both inspiration and horror.

"River to Infinity" is an entirely reflective landscape containing a mirrored river. On the banks of the river, reflective images of endangered or extinct flora and fauna coexist with fantasy animals borne of recombinant DNA technology. At both end points of the river, video projections of constantly changing American landscapes play on the walls of the space and are reflected on the mirrored surfaces of the river.