Beth Krebs

Wild Blue Yonder

Through openings in the dropped ceiling, a viewer can glimpse a fabricated "sky" above.  Cotton clouds float between sprinkler pipes, a blimp passes by, and animated birds fly on and off of wire conduit.  Pigeons coo, birds tweet, and the high distant sound of a 747 passes overhead.

Read catalogue essay by Merrily Kerr

Exhibited at Real Artways, Hartford, CT in 2009

materials: dropped ceiling grid and panels, cove base molding, blue foam panels, paint, cotton, fan, lights, stop time animation, monitor, motorized blimp, audio

dimensions variable (here room is 14' x 24', dropped ceiling at 9')

                                                  Click the image to view excerpts from the animation

View studies for Wild Blue Yonder

– studies for Wild Blue Yonder

    studio mock up

                                                              

                                                    mixed media drawing (9 x 12")

mixed media drawing (8 x 10")

mixed media drawing (9 x 12")

Understory

                                                                                                                 photo: Joanna Eldridge Morrissey

I built Understory in the New Hampshire woods in winter (2008).  Having worked within the frame of a room to make most of my previous installations, this was my response to this particular outdoor site.

dimensions variable, here 16’ x 16’, 9’ high

materials: dropped ceiling grid, light cover panels, corrugated plastic

 

               

view studies for Understory

– studies for Understory

mixed media drawings, each approx 9 x 12"

Horizon

Horizon, 2008    

In this stand of very vertical trees, I created a horizon line by putting a white band around each tree.  Each  band was placed so that it would appear as a single line when viewed from a specific vantage point.  The bands on the nearest trees were placed at 9', while the bands on the trees in the back were at 20' or so.

Blimp

                                      

click on image to view the video

Blimp (working title), 2008, is a single channel video piece (2:27)

Doppelgang Series

In this series of video installations, moving light patterns act as evidence of an unexpected or improbable opening in the room.

 

click image to view video documentation

In Doppelgang I, 2007, a tiny window in a basement gallery poses as the source for cast light shapes on the adjoining wall. The project was exhibited at The ISE Cultural Foundation in 2009 as part of the group exhibition, A Conflicted State.

materials: projected video (5' tall), window (5" tall), fan, light, paper leaves, vellum

click image to view video documentation

Doppelgang II was exhibited at the Elizabeth Foundation Project Space in 2008.  In this piece, a room is drawn with tape, and the changing light shape of a window is projected into it.

materials: video projection, tape

                                   click image to view video documentation        

Doppelgang III was exhibited at Smack Mellon in 2008.  In this piece, light and sound enter the room through a ventilation grate in the gallery wall.

materials:  existing vent, light, audio, projected video

Ceci n'est pas une pipe

                                                                                           Click image to view video documentation

Ceci n'est pas une pipe, 2007, is an outdoor sound sculpture.  The "decoy" pipes, made from paper mache, mimic the curved pipes that sit on the sidewalk next to buildings, and whose purpose is to provide an escape for gases in the plumbing lines.  As people walked by, the pipes emitted belching sounds.

materials: paper mache, cement, plywood, speakers, cd player

Exhibited as part of the Art Under the Bridge Festival, DUMBO, Brooklyn in 2007.

– drawings for Ceci n'est pas une pipe

 

 

The Epic Voyage of the Vinyl Kontiki

                                                                                                             click on image to view video              
 

This is a single channel video piece (1:13), made in 2006.  It was inspired by a blue water bed.  It was exhibited as part of the exhibition, Signal Channel: Contemporary Video Art at the Bemis Center in 2006, and as part of the Scope Art Fair in 2007.

materials: waterbed, felt, vinyl, string, video, audio