December 4-10, 2003
artpicks
"Ahead"
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art
Karen Bamonte made her mark in this city with sophisticated conceptual dance works. Then in 1999, Bamonte moved to rural Italy where she recommenced working in ceramics, which she had studied along with dance and cinematography in college. Now she makes a return visit to Philly to present new work of an entirely different medium -- a series of sculptural heads built from wire and mesh. "I sure have been attracted (and aroused) by what goes on inside heads and the relationship between heads and bodies," says Bamonte, who notes there's a skinlike quality to mesh and the translucency has implications as well. "I started thinking about how thoughts and feelings are always spilling out from people's heads, sometimes leaving them empty," she explains.
Unlike when creating for a company of dancers, Bamonte now works alone in her mountain studio. Even so, these particular pieces presented a level of artistic dialogue. As she observes, "You really begin having a relationship with these guys. They offer a kind of energy and life and talk back."
Bamonte's conversation pieces appear in a show at bahdeebahdu titled "Ahead." Featuring works by 13 artists, items in the exhibition are interspersed among this Old City gallery's eclectic array of furniture and light sculptures. According to co-curator Eileen Tognini, "The message we are trying to deliver is, how do you live with art?"
"Ahead," Dec. 5-Jan. 15, bahdeebahdu, 309 Cherry St., 215-627-5002.
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