VIRTUAL EXHIBITION

amie potsic: MIDNIGHT MASS

This virtual exhibition is based on Amie Potsic’s Midnight Mass installation at
The Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington, Delaware. Exhibition essay written by Kathrine Page.

Midnight Mass exhibition essay by Kathrine Page | Gretchen Hupfel Curator of Contemporary Art
at The Delaware Contemporary

Working with the expansive industrial architecture of The Delaware Contemporary, Potsic strives to punctuate the height, scale, and proportion of the interior space. With over 250 linear feet of silk, Potsic has designed a monumental site-specific installation involving panels suspended on wires in the atrium plenum. The semi-translucent silk with photographic imagery of silhouetted tree branches weave and dance throughout the space in sweeping, graceful, abstract lines. By grafting the panels into the space and extending them from the entrance at a lower level and upward toward the clerestory windows, Potsic's work not only enhances the museum's architecture, but also affirms how art is intrinsically related to the existential human experience as viewers gaze at the billowing, twilight forest canopy overhead.

Potsic's work investigates the idea of woodland reveries surrounded by evocations of deciduous trees in winter, as though the landscape itself has been pulled from the earth and the nave at Midnight Mass replanted in the lobby. Like medieval basilicas that were designed to confer a cosmological concept of the dome of heaven, Potsic festoons her silk in single point perspective to conjure the grand processions during Midnight Mass. The sheer immediacy of the work evokes a sense of triumph and joy; the vast array of willowy draping in cobalt blue creates the illusion of a dome of heaven thus serving as a metaphor for celestial realms. Further, the dramatic sweeping arms symbolize a welcoming gesture for the viewer. As such, Potsic strives to awaken and nourish the divine mysteries of liturgical space. In its presence, her work challenges viewer's notion of a forest sanctuary as an invitation to contemplate the immensity and sublimity of nature and their place in it.

As an observer of the natural world, Potsic's composition of undulating elliptical arches rests within a hemispherical stage, which point to a global call for action. Her work is not only breathtakingly beautiful and enchanting but underscores the urgency of climate change and the need for environmental protections. By creating both a visceral and cerebral connection to trees and the natural world, Potsic's panoply of silk hold a double entendre: they offer a metaphorical protective covering, while drawing attention to universal deforestation and the loss of the earth's essential protective layer.

MIDNIGHT MASS

Amie Potsic: Artist Statement

“My work references the sensory experience of being within the forest while encouraging us all to appreciate and preserve its future. Incarnate environmental explorations, my photographs and installations invite you to connect with your own perception of nature in a manner that is both intimate and enchanting. I focus on the beauty and mystery of the forest to share my sense of wonder, develop our connection to trees, and encourage environmental protections. Personal experience underscoring the urgency of climate change, I draw attention to deforestation by creating visceral and cerebral connections to trees and the natural world.

Midnight Mass is a site-specific installation created from over 250 feet of silk. The semi-translucent silk with photographic imagery from the forest weaves its way through the air to arch, bend, and arabesque in the sky. The panels extend from the entrance reaching up toward the looming windows behind to be backlit like stained glass. The installation fills the space in graceful, abstract lines and draping, drawing the eye up toward the apex of the room. Looking up at the illuminated silk, a conjured sense of our own scale, akin to what we feel in a cathedral or looking up at the forest canopy, enhances the experience of the artwork and museum’s architecture.”

- Amie Potsic

Click here to access the full Midnight Mass press kit.

RECENT PRESS

Constance McBride interviews Amie Potsic on Art Watch Radio about her new solo installation Midnight Mass at the Delaware Contemporary in Wilmington.

Amie Potsic

MIDNIGHT MASS

January 24 - April 25, 2020
Reception: Friday, February 7th, 5:00pm - 9:00 pm

Working with the expansive industrial architecture of The Delaware Contemporary, Potsic drapes the museum lobby in a celestial ambiance.

https://www.artforum.com/artguide/the-delaware-contemporary-2333/midnight-mass-177205