John Michael Kohler Arts Center presents Rush to Rest an exhibition on view through September 22.
Rush to Rest, by New York artists Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen, is a response to the colossal seasonal ice sheets that take shape on the Sheboygan lakefront in winter. This immersive installation is not a literal rendering of the accumulated ice pack but rather an aggregate of its physical characteristics. Rush to Rest exaggerates the mass and color of the frozen expanse as well as the tangible manifestations of wind and water that generate it.
In the last few years, Kavanaugh and Nguyen have traveled to places that neither artist has seen and then created an installation after surveying the unfamiliar landscape. Their work has become truly site responsive as evident in Rush to Rest. Here, their imaginations prevail, drawing attention to the power and poetry of wind and water—two elements of nature that promise a way toward a renewable future.
Rush to Rest was commissioned by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in its continuing commitment to serve as laboratory for the creation of new works. The work is part of the UNCOMMON GROUND series of exhibitions. www.jmkac.org