The Perpetual Motion of a Still Life, 2011

The Perpetual Motion of a Still Life, 2011
Ryerson Woods Conservation Area with the Cook County Forest Preserves, Deerfield, IL

“When we try to pick out anything else, we find it hitched to everything else.” John Muir

Using materials drawn from the demolished gardener’s cottage located on the property of Ryerson Woods and the mutable image of the still life, artists Sara Black, Joseph Belknap and Sarah Belknap have generated an evolving performance installation on the Brushwood site at Ryerson Woods. This project considers the exacting and extravagant beauty of landscape and still lifeimagery as held in a precarious juxtaposition with the fleeting, indeterminate and transformative deep ecology of Ryerson Woods.

In conjunction with the evolving installation outside, artists Jeanne Dunning, Jessica Labatte, Mark Rospenda, Claire Ashley, and Kristina Paabus exhibit works of photography, drawing and painting inside Brushwood. The works in this group exhibition, as curated by Black and Belknap, further consider the historical role of still life and landscape painting as an attempt to describe truth through imagery while delicately revealing a much richer world of fragmentation, transformation and decay.

An extra special thank you to Sophie Twichell, David Wolf, Charlie Roderick, Dylan Jones, Monty Kim, Brent Garbowski and Anthony at Heinz Orchard in Green Oaks, IL, and everyone who contributed to the fundraiser that brought this project to life!