No Need to Touch

ArtCenter/SouthFlorida From May 18th through Jun 24th, 2007ArtCenter/South Florida (ACSF) presents No Need to Touch, a fiber-based exhibition curated by Reneé M. Cagnina, ACSF Director of Exhibitions and Artist Services. The reception slated for Saturday, May 19th at 7:00 p.m. features a live performance by Agustina Woodgate. This event is free and open to the public. Far from the usual gallery viewing experience, the show examines the relationship between the creation and its onlooker through texture, dimension and physical contact with the work. No Need to Touch participating artists are Pip Brant, Natasha Duwin, Jillian Mayer, Guerra de la Paz, Kerry Phillips, Elizabeth Renfrow, Reeve Schumacher, Tawnie Silva, Lisa Solomon and Agustina Woodgate. Their works transform common and man-made fiber-based materials including carpet, nylon, polyester, hair, discarded clothing, thread, fabric and more to evoke the most natural human desire: the desire to touch. “Fiber-based art, which has a long-standing and dignified place within art history, has recently become more recognized because of its relatively unexploited nature as a medium in the contemporary art world. It also has this innate ability to communicate with a broader audience than your average contemporary art piece. All of us have combed our hair, walked barefoot on carpet or pulled a dangling thread from a piece of clothing at some point in our lives. These moments of interaction with fibers, often unconsciously stored in our memories, will be reignited by this exhibition,” says Cagnina. No Need to Touch explores visitors’ sensory relationship with art through two-dimensional pieces that tempt them to physically touch the work; with three-dimensional sculptures that allow them to examine the work from various perspectives and with pieces that force them to be in direct contact with the work. Kerry Phillips – ArtCenter Artist-in-Residence – will force guests to break standard etiquette by walking on her carpeted* art, which will cover the ACSF gallery floor. By contrast, Guerra de la Paz (a Miami-based collaborative group) will entice viewers to visually discover the complexities of an installation composed of used clothing – a work created with human garments but as a piece of art, prohibited from human touch.