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Jonny Farrow — a fine word, galaxy

Jonny Farrow, Orbit/Planemo. Video still.

March 13 – 30, 2018 The Project Space, NYU Abu Dhabi

Press Release

The NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery is pleased to announce the next show at its auxiliary venue, The Project Space. Opening to the public on March 13, – a fine word, galaxy exhibits new cast bronze and concrete sculpture, hand-woven cloth, kinetic sculpture, prints, photographs, video, and sound presentation by New York University Abu Dhabi faculty Jonny Farrow.

A multi-disciplinary artist, Farrow also lectures on Visual Arts and Interactive Media, teaching courses on sculpture, hardware hacking, printmaking, and sound art. His work often uses sound, as both a poetic concept and a material, to research the liminal spaces of memory and suspect histories. Utilizing concepts such as resonance, feedback, and transmission, Farrow sounds these overlooked spaces through various material means.

– a fine word, galaxy will feature works such as the sound installation Frequency Shift, which startles listeners into the present moment, never quite allowing the mind to wander. Sculptural works such as Spiral and X, both cast bronze, and Swing/Inclination, cast iron, present the artist’s fascination with tension, suspension and time and how simple motion can mark territory. Hover/Nadir, a bell/bowl-like shape, also cast bronze, is inspired by Farrow’s interest in the potentials of forms and the thwarting of expectations that a simple re-presentation can offer—neither bell nor bowl—a curved surface for the eyes to follow.

Artist Jonny Farrow commented, “Seeing with our eyes requires light, but to look far across space requires complicated instruments that engage areas of the electromagnetic spectrum which we are unable to sense directly. This, to me, is poetry, and it drives my practice. I work at the edge of what I know and keep going, approaching materials with an alchemical stance. At this edge of knowing, objects come alive, new associations are made, vibration happens, and I sense the futility of that gaze that would try to know everything.”

The exhibition takes its title from Kenneth Koch’s poem, The Duplications:

“This galaxy in which—a fine word, galaxy, 

Giving a sense of clean wide open spaces”

– a fine word, galaxy opens to public at 5:30 pm on Tuesday, March 13 with a reception in The Project Space.

The Project Space is operated by the staff of the NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery and housed within the campus’ Arts Center. It is dedicated to NYU Abu Dhabi’s community projects such as the annual Capstone Festival, semester-end exhibitions of student works, and faculty-curated exhibitions, providing a platform for experimentation and exploration.

– a fine word, galaxy

Jonny Farrow

March 13 – 30, 2018

The Project Space, NYU Abu Dhabi (inside the Arts Center)

Saturday – Thursday, 3 – 10 PM

Details at the website: http://www.nyuad-artgallery.org/en_US/arts-center-project-space/

About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and research campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly selective undergraduate curriculum across the disciplines with a world center for advanced research and scholarship. The university enables its students in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, humanities, and arts to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity’s shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi’s high-achieving students have come from over 115 countries and speak over 115 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents.