Mixed media artist Michele Kirchner will open her second solo exhibition at the North Haven Gallery on July 20, with a reception to follow on July 22. 

Kirchner’s new collection, BATHYMETRY, explores depth and layering in a variety of media through works inspired by deliberate, repeated observations of the natural world. Her representations of the sound of snow melting, rivulets in a low-tide mud flat, and the movement of planets entice the viewer to bring their most precious commodity–attention–to incremental change at the smallest and grandest of scales, pushing back against the frenetic pace of today’s world.

“In a world that commodifies attention,” Kirchner said, “this work is a rebellion. Nothing about it is fast.”

Working in fabric, felt, natural dyes, and found objects, Kirchner creates composite images that are both wholly truthful and complete inventions. The title work, Bathymetry, compiles observations of low tide viewed through her window over an entire year to create one definitive abstraction rendered in hand-dyed fabric. Deliquescence translates the audible rhythm of melting snow into a visual score, but one that reflects the erosion of the snow in the gradual decay of the accuracy of her transcription.