Installation view of Celestial Dew Trap, Behold, the Net!, and Pacific Ocean Copper Mining Protestor

This installation of new works by Barbara Hobot is a distillation of, and artistic response to, a two-year period of research. This research examined tangential connections among the fog-catching nets of central Chile, the alchemical recipes of Isaac Newton, and the sonic terrain of her ancestral homeland, the Tatra Mountains. Borrowing from the museological language of the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles, Hobot presents a darkened room (perhaps cave-like or gesturing toward a clandestine lab) where a 17th century painting by Joachim Wtewael is reproduced on a sheet of stainless steel. An elusive alchemical object called “The Net” is stitched in illuminated embroidery, and a barely legible recipe encoded in mythology glitters on a plate of reclaimed brass. Iron oxide, mist, magnetic force, and auditory hallucinations carve a matrix across the gallery to connect mountain ranges and eras. Using photography, audio, video, and wall-based sculpture, Hobot creates a space where disparate locations, time periods, and objects align and fuse. This solo exhibition marks an evolution of Hobot’s practice from formal investigations into the cultural, historical, and metaphorical associations of nets.

Accompanying the show is a creative response by artist, curator, and professor Jay Wilson. Copies are available at the gallery, free of charge.

The artist thanks Shannon Anderson, Patrick Cull, Jay Wilson, Forest City Gallery, FogQuest, Fundación Un Alto en el Desierto, and the Ontario Arts Council. The research conducted for this exhibition was supported by the Chalmers Arts Fellowship administered by the OAC.

Installation view of Pacific Ocean Copper Mining Protestor, Untill Vulcans net inclose them both, and Iron and Copper Ensnared on Steel.

Installation view of Untill Vulcans net inclose them both, Iron and Copper Ensnared on Steel, Carpathian-Andean Alloy (back wall), and Celestial Dew Trap.

Carpathian-Andean Alloy, 2019, UV digital print on lattice steel, digital print on adhesive recycled poly-linen, 12” x 24” x 1.5”.

Images: The Tatra Mountains, Slovakia, 2013 and La Campana Mountain, Chile, 2016

Note: The photos of mountains are printed on removable vinyl and adhered directly to the wall. The metal lattice has also been printed with the same photos. It floats in front of the vinyl so there is a moiré effect and shadows interfering with the reading of the images.

Untill Vulcans net inclose them both, 2019 UV print on brass plate, walnut shelf Plate: H 9.25” x W 7.25”, Plate with shelf: H 14.5” x W 20” x D 7”

Note: The text printed on this brass plate is a reproduction of Isaac Newton’s handwritten alchemical recipe called “The Net”, c. 1680, National Library of Israel, Isaac Newton. “ MS. Var. 259”. The Chymistry of Isaac Newton. Ed. 2013. Retrieved October 9, 2018 from: http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/newton/ALCH00063. The title of this piece is a line found in the recipe.

Behold, the Net!, 2019 Embroidery floss on synthetic velvet, MDF, iron oxide, LEDs H 10” x W 10.25” x D 2.25”

Note: An embroidered reproduction of an alchemical recipe produced by William R. Newman at Indi¬ana University Bloomington. To make this purple iron-copper alloy, Newman translated, deciphered, and produced Isaac Newton’s recipe called “The Net” from the early 1680s. My attempts to see this alchemical object in person were unsuccessful, so I embroidered my own version.

Celestial Dew Trap, 2018, Cold-rolled steel, vinyl on magnetic sheeting, digital print on paper H 84” x W 66”

Note: The photo in this installation is of a fog-catching net in the village of Peña Blanca, Chile, 2016. This net harvests fog that blows over the Pacific Ocean. The collected water is used for native vegetation and livestock. The photo was taken by Patrick Cull in 2016.

Iron and Copper Ensnared on Steel, 2019, UV print on stainless steel H 13” x W 10.5” x D 1.5” Image: photo of painting by Joachim Wtewael, Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, 1604-1608, oil on copper, 8” x 6”, Collection of J. Paul Getty Museum

Note: This is a photo of a painting I saw at the Getty Museum. I printed it on a reclaimed piece of steel, mounted on a deep gravity bar so that it protrudes from the wall. The sculpture’s shadow mimics the one created by the original painting’s frame. The painting itself depicts a myth used to encode an alchemical recipe called “The Net”.

Iron and Copper Ensnared on Steel (detail), 2019, UV print on stainless steel H 13” x W 10.5” x D 1.5” Image: photo of painting by Joachim Wtewael, Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, 1604-1608, oil on copper, 8” x 6”, Collection of J. Paul Getty Museum

Note: This is a photo of a painting I saw at the Getty Museum. I printed it on a reclaimed piece of steel, mounted on a deep gravity bar so that it protrudes from the wall. The sculpture’s shadow mimics the one created by the original painting’s frame. The painting itself depicts a myth used to encode an alchemical recipe called “The Net”.