FARMINGTON, ME (January 14, 2013)—The UMF Art Gallery ushers in the spring semester with the bold work of Harriet Casdin-Silver, a pioneer in the medium of holography and a supremely articulate artist-provocateur. The exhibit “Harriet Casdin-Silver: Beauty and the Political Body” is free and open to the public. It runs from January 31-March 7, 2013, with an opening reception from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, February 7. This exhibition brings together many of Casdin-Silver's best-known holograms. Her work sometimes fragments the body literally and metaphorically, sometimes reveals it fully, as in her joyfully nude double self-portrait as a septuagenarian, “70 + 1 + 2.” Using the unique realism of holography to provoke a powerful response from the viewer, Casdin-Silver said, "my mission was to help women grow in every way — psychologically, sociologically and in belief in themselves.” In these haunting, beautiful and often gently humorous nudes trapped in virtual space, Casdin-Silver targets society's oppressive, obsessive focus on beauty and youth.

Throughout her long international career, Harriet Casdin-Silver (1925-2008), pushed the boundaries of the medium while challenging the politics of beauty and representation. She was a longtime fellow at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT, taught holography at Brown University and held numerous international residencies. Early in her career in 1966, she participated in Experiments in Art and Technology's (E.A.T's) famous “9 Evenings.” In 1977, her series of Equivocal Forks holograms (metaphors for the female body) formed the spine of “Centerbeam”, a collaborative installation by 22 MIT artists, scientists and engineers at the “documenta 6” exhibition in Kassel, Germany. In 1998, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Garden mounted a major retrospective of her work, “Harriet Casdin-Silver: The Art of Holography.”

This UMF Art Gallery exhibition is sponsored by the Department of Sound, Performance and Visual Inquiry. It is made possible by the generous assistance of Gallery Naga, 67 Newbury Street, Boston. The UMF Art Gallery is located at 246 Main Street in Farmington, behind the Admissions Office. Gallery hours are Tuesdays–Sundays 12-4 p.m. and by appointment.  For more information or to make an appointment please contact Sarah Maline at maline@maine.edu or call the gallery at 207/778-7002. More about the UMF Art Gallery The UMF Art Gallery is a teaching gallery dedicated to bringing contemporary art and artists to campus and the regional community. In its focus on innovative and challenging new work, the gallery reinforces the academic vision of the University and the UMF Department of Sound, Performance and Visual Inquiry in celebrating art as a powerful agent of community and cultural identity. The gallery develops compelling interdisciplinary educational opportunities for students and community and works with local schools to integrate art into their curricula.