Opening Reception and Artist Talk: Area C Projects
About the event
Erik Carlson of AREA C Projects will be giving an artist talk in the Fine Arts Center Auditorium, which will be followed by an opening reception. This talk is in conjunction with an Area C Project exhibition that will be held in the Fine Arts Center Gallery II from September 18th through October 6th. Erik will discuss the permanent public artwork that AREA C is creating for the WSU Plant Science Building, touching on the conceptual basis for the design and the approach to the artworks integration with the building. He will also discuss some examples of AREA C’s past work and their overall approach to art in the public realm, with particular attention to the site-specific nature of their designs.
More information about Erik Carlson and AREA C Projects:
AREA C Projects is a Providence, Rhode Island-based public art practice consisting of Erik Carlson (lead artist) and Erica Carpenter. Drawing on backgrounds in multimedia installation, architecture, audio composition, performance and experimental technique, we strive to create public artworks that reveal unexpected points of commonality in our shared surroundings, inviting deeper engagement on individual and local levels. Lead artist Erik Carlson brings over 10 years of public art practice and 14 years of architectural experience to each commission’s design, fabrication and installation. Erica Carpenter’s background in spatially driven poetics helps shape the team’s conceptual process, forming each project around the goal of creating a fresh dialogue between physical space and the intentions embodied within it.
We work in a broad array of media including glass, wood, metal, light, and text – sometimes applying these analog elements on their own, sometimes in combination with digital media – and often using community outreach or archival materials to deepen ties to local life and culture. Our toolkit has expanded over years as the result of a flexible design methodology that considers the particular site and its users first and foremost, coming to each project with an open agenda that allows us to bring in the materials that best resonate with the architectural environment of the space and the values encoded within the way it is used.
* * * *
Since 2002 Erik Carlson has been recording and performing under the name AREA C. His recordings have appeared on Preservation Records, Sedimental, Students of Decay and Last Visible Dog. He has composed soundtracks for several documentary films, including “Witness: Katrina,” an Emmy Award-winning feature on the National Geographic Channel, and “Town Hall” (PBS America ReFramed Series). In 2009 he received the McColl-Johnson Fellowship in music composition. Erik holds a BA (with distinction) in English Literature / Modern Studies from the University of Virginia.