Bonsack Gallery: Friday, 14 October 2011

“Water in Winter,” an exhibit of prints in which Casey Rae explores the icescapes of Lake Superior, will be on display in the Bonsack Gallery from October 14 through November 8.

Rae, who has always loved snow, went searching for the powdery precipitation in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 2006. She says, “I was quite surprised to find Lake Superior transformed into a magnificent frozen landscape. I had an eerie feeling, as if I were on another planet. The shoreline had disappeared and the darkened sky against the bright ice enhanced the feeling of an alien world. I spent the day taking pictures at the edge of Lake Superior, but I was not able to capture the feeling I had on first discovery.”

Rae returned to the Lakes the following year with a more serious objective. She says, “I wanted to recreate photographically that haunting feeling of winter isolation that I had experienced. To do this the images needed to be large scale. I shot 4x5 transparencies, and to get as much detail as possible, I later scanned the film on a high-resolution scanner. I cropped the images just above and below the horizon line and printed them (very large) in order to convey the feeling of vastness of these Lakes. The resulting icescapes, printed on fine art paper, transcend the photographic medium with their other-worldly presence.”

All are invited to a public reception hosted by the artist from 5:30 to 7:30 pm, on Friday, October 14. Regular gallery hours are 8 am to 6:30 pm, weekdays. The exhibit is free to the public. For more information, contact Donya Allison (Fine Arts) at 314-993-4040, ext. 229 or dallison@jburroughs.org.

The Bonsack Gallery
John Burroughs School
755 South Price Road
Ladue MO