College of The Albemarle (COA) is pleased to announce that “Sea Marks: Explorations from the High Arctic to the Outer Banks,” an exhibition of works by Christina Lorena Weisner, will open on November 15, 2023, in the Professional Arts Building at COA – Dare.
In June of 2023, Weisner took part in “The Arctic Circle Residency,” an annual expeditionary program for artists and scientists in which participants explore the High Arctic near the Svalbard Archipelago and the Arctic Ocean aboard a specially outfitted barquentine sailing vessel. Weisner’s residence on the Outer Banks, a barrier island off the coast of North Carolina, and the expedition described above are the catalysts for the collection and creation of context-specific materials that take the form of sculpture, drawings, data, audio-visual materials, scientific and social studies that synthesize and reflect the complexity of the two unique locations – Earth’s polar ice cap and an offshore island in the Atlantic Ocean, and their perhaps not so obvious, relationship.
Weisner’s works in the upcoming exhibition focus on “sea marks.” Traditionally, sea marks are understood as landmarks, structures and devices that can provide warning and guiding signs to mariners – orange flags, channel markers, buoys and beacons. However, Weisner expands the definition of sea marks to include discarded objects found on the shore or at sea, unintentionally or intentionally: umbrellas, beach chairs, coolers, floatation devices, and other plastic items of great variety. These types of sea marks, Weisner says, “should similarly act as a warning and as an indicator of the necessary course that should be followed.” Such discarded materials can be found even in some of the most isolated regions on Earth, such as the North Pole, either intact or as microplastics.
The exhibition will run from November 15 – December 13, 2023. The gallery is on the second floor of the Professional Arts Building at COA – Dare, 205 Highway 64 S., Manteo, North Carolina. The public can visit the gallery Monday through Thursday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The artist’s opening reception will be held on Wednesday, November 15th, from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. at COA – Dare.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Christina Lorena Weisner is a visual artist and an associate professor of art at College of The Albemarle. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Sculpture and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in World Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University (2006), and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Sculpture and Ceramics from the University of Texas at Austin (2010). In 2013 – 2014, Weisner was awarded a Fulbright Grant for Sculpture and Installation Art in Germany, where she worked on a series of site-specific sculptures based on the Ries meteorite impact crater. Weisner explores complex relationships between objects, humans, and the natural environment, from the organic to the technological, drawing parallels between the vast and the microscopic, the subjective and the objective. Her work invites the viewer to consider the deep geological time of water, rocks, and the landscape and the more fleeting existence of living beings through objects, technology, scientific instruments, and the discovery process. Weisner’s work helps widen our gaze without bludgeoning or delivering any final word. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally, most recently at the Gregg Museum of Art and Design in Raleigh, NC, and Mercatormuseum, Sint-Niklaas, Belgium.
For information, please contact Tammy W. Sawyer, COA Director of Communications and Marketing, at [email protected] or 252.335.0821 ext. 2420.