ASU Art Museum's Social Studies Project Unveils "Miracle Report"

Comments (0) By Sativa Peterson Thursday, Feb 16 2012

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Sean Deckert

A still from "Miracle Report"

Location Info

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ASU Art Museum

51 E. 10th St.
Tempe, AZ 85281

Category: Museums

Region: Tempe

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"Miracle Report" will be on display at the ASU Art Museum, Mill Avenue and 10th Street in Tempe, through June 2. Visit http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu for more information or call 480-965-2787. Admission is free.

More About

The artists behind "Miracle Report," Julianne Swartz and Ken Landauer, are individuals, of course, but they are also a married couple. Though they often work together in unofficial ways, "Miracle Report" represents the first time they have collaborated professionally on an installation. The project took from each very specific things — each having different focus and talents. Swartz is known for creating sculptural installations using communication, light and sound that often have a tender expressiveness, like "Digital Empathy" (www.thehighline.org/about/public-art/swartz) and "Terrain" (www.imamuseum.org/exhibition/julianne-swartz-terrain). She also showed work in the 2004 Whitney Biennial. Landauer is a sculptor who often plays with scale and humor in his work.

Most resonant in this show is the idea of transmission. Miracles are temporal — only real while they are being believed in. Transmission can be delicate because it can be interfered with by competing messages, interruptions, disruption. But the layering of the voices provides strength as the recollections reinforce one another. How do you judge the strength of a miracle? As Swartz and Landauer say in their artist statement, "Our installation strives to embody some beauty, some hocus-pocus and some unexplainable magic."