"All you can own is a document of an ephemeral moment," Hans Breder, a visiting artist with two exhibits of art on the Ball State campus, said.
In one of his two recent exhibitions, "Enacting the Liminal," now at the Ball State University Museum of Art, Hans Breder showcases an integration of select works from his career as an artist.
Breder uses distinctly different mediums throughout the exhibition to spark an altered state of consciousness in his viewers and demonstrate the concept of liminality -- the threshold of a physiological or psychological response. Breder uses a melding of contrasting materials, such as video, acrylic paint, photographs, aluminum and clear acrylic.
"There is a meditative aspect to my work. Ideally, you have to leave the object behind and go to another state," Breder said.
In his "Body Sculpture" pieces, Breder combines organic and geometric lines and uses the medium of photography to bring the viewer into an altered state of seeing and being. He juxtaposes mirrors and the human body to create seemingly dislocated images; thus, pictures of life that strike a different chord in the minds of his viewers, a chord of the non-preconceived notion of the organic body.
Breder moved from Europe to New York in 1964 on a fellowship and was a distinguished professor of art at the University of Iowa. He has exhibited his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and various other galleries worldwide.-á
All the wandering left him searching for a place to belong.
"I lost my roots, my home," Breder said. Breder said he found roots by experiencing different states of being through his work.
"There's not one threshold of being," Breder said.
In conjunction with "Enacting the Liminal" at the museum, Breder is also exhibiting a retrospective of his work at the Atrium Gallery from Jan. 15 to Jan. 30, "Hans Breder: Intermedia Works 1964-2003."-á
In this exhibit, Breder presents some of his tougher political and social commentary work. In "The Nazi Loop," a multimedia installation, Breder comments on xenophobia.
"I believe this work draws a mirror to the present in relation to the context of the horrors of the past," John Fillwalk, an intermedia art instructor at Ball State and former graduate assistant to Hans Breder, said.-á
It is in these pieces of work, or documents, that Breder captures his own ephemeral moments and generously crafts them to share with viewers.
Breder will speak on his work and career in AJ 175 today at 3:30 p.m. Both exhibitions and related events are sponsored by the Lilly Endowment and the Center for Media Design.-á-á-á-á-á
"Enacting the Liminal" is currently open at the Ball State University Museum of Art and will run through March 7.
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