“Proximity” open Jan. 27–March 24 in Luce Gallery

The Cornell College Peter Paul Luce Gallery will host an exhibition by the interdisciplinary artist Cynthia Greig from Jan. 27–March 24, 2023.

In “Proximity,” Greig uses photography and video to explore themes of life and death while focusing on how the passage of time between the two has the potential to reveal more than what first meets the eye. 

“Rendering the poetic rhythms and fleeting forms of a breath exhaled, or reconfiguring the ghostly vestiges of whitewashed still-life arrangements as three-dimensional drawings, my work reduces representation to its most minimal as a way to give visibility to the otherwise unseen or unnoticed,” Greig said.

Greig uses different forms of mark-making with photography and video along with 3D work to explore themes of human connection, mortality, and the shifting nature of perception. Produced before the global pandemic, the work took on added significance as forced isolation and political turmoil increased our awareness of the uncertainty of the future.

“In fact, the proximity to each other’s breathing has been transformed by this invisible virus transmitted by the air we all inhale and exhale, replacing physical encounters and experiences with the virtual,” she said.

Capturing friends’ and family’s breaths exhaled onto a flatbed scanner, the photographs from “Breath Scan Portraits” offer their vaporous imprints as proof of life, as well as its fragility. Shimmering light reanimates a single still image of a dewy breath on glass in the video, “Flicker,” before it dissolves into darkness. The works “CAPTURE” and “Inspiration/Expiration” reimagine the cycle of respiration in three dimensions, each giving tangible form to the otherwise invisible process.

“Together the works offer a meditation on the invisible forces and processes that sustain life,” Greig said. “While we might take our breathing for granted, it resonates alongside the pulsing rhythm of the universe. ‘Proximity’ revels in its presence, power, and substance, directing attention and giving more weight to that which connects us rather than dividing us from one another and the world we live in.”

Greig earned her M.F.A. in photography from the University of Michigan in 1995 after studying art history (M.A.) and filmmaking at the University of Iowa and printmaking (B.F.A.) at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Her photographs and videos have been exhibited both in the U.S. and internationally and are held in numerous museum, corporate, and private collections. Until recently, she maintained her studio practice in the Detroit area before relocating to northern Michigan.

This exhibit is sponsored by the Department of Art and Art History at Cornell College and the Peter Paul Luce Gallery Programming Fund.

Luce Gallery, located in McWethy Hall on Cornell’s campus, is open Monday through Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. Admission to the gallery is free.

For more information contact Gallery Coordinator and Lecturer Brooks Cashbaugh, bcashbaugh@cornellcollege.edu