Born in 1970, Rochester, New York
EDUCATION
1996
MFA, Studio Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1991
BA, Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
1987
Visual Studies Workshop, Rochester, New York
For her second solo exhibition at the gallery, Mirra presents a new body of work entitled laws of clash, 247. The title comes from an index Mirra made for a collection of essays by the philosopher William James, which was used to create works for this project. Contrary to the standard columnar index format, Mirra presents her index entries as typed text on hand painted 16 mm cotton bands of various lengths. Installed in a single organic line around the gallery, each band contains the index entries for a specific letter of the alphabet, but are not presented in alphabetical order, rather according to size, largest to smallest. The subtle variations in the color of the bands, a limited pallet of browns, denotes their hand painted nature which, together with the slight shifting of the height of the works, is evocative of the earth and nature in sympathy with the ideas referred to in the texts from which the index was made.
Neither poetry nor prose, the index form has the appearance of objectivity, while relying on Mirra's decisions as to what is included and how entries are notated. Certain index entries seem quite customary and objective such as "nature, 20, 41-44, 56" or "rationalism, 12, 30" whereas the bands also include atypical and wordy entries such as "express a tolerably definitive philosophic attitude in a very untechnical way, vii" or perhaps more personal as with "Rochester, NY, 301" the city of the artist's birth. It is not Mirra's intention that this work be seen as a supplement or a proposal for an actual functional index to the text, but is instead a way for her to create a body of work based on source material which is of interest to her. Mirra first began working in the 16 mm band format in relation to film and chose to employ this method of presentation for this work as a way to evoke the temporality of film. Motion is an integral element to the experience of this work as the physical act of circling the gallery brings the text to light. As the viewer moves through the gallery reading the index entries, an abstraction of the book is unveiled as mediated through the artist's experience of the original text.
Helen Mirra's work has been widely exhibited internationally, including group exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Basel, Kunstverein Hamburg and the 50 th Venice Biennale together with one-person exhibitions at The Renaissance Society, Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the University of California Berkeley Art Museum and the Dallas Art Museum. Beginning this summer Mirra will be an Artist-in-residence at the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Berlin and upon her return to the US in 2006 she will commence her position as assistant professor at Harvard University.
Neither poetry nor prose, the index form has the appearance of objectivity, while relying on Mirra's decisions as to what is included and how entries are notated. Certain index entries seem quite customary and objective such as "nature, 20, 41-44, 56" or "rationalism, 12, 30" whereas the bands also include atypical and wordy entries such as "express a tolerably definitive philosophic attitude in a very untechnical way, vii" or perhaps more personal as with "Rochester, NY, 301" the city of the artist's birth. It is not Mirra's intention that this work be seen as a supplement or a proposal for an actual functional index to the text, but is instead a way for her to create a body of work based on source material which is of interest to her. Mirra first began working in the 16 mm band format in relation to film and chose to employ this method of presentation for this work as a way to evoke the temporality of film. Motion is an integral element to the experience of this work as the physical act of circling the gallery brings the text to light. As the viewer moves through the gallery reading the index entries, an abstraction of the book is unveiled as mediated through the artist's experience of the original text.
Helen Mirra's work has been widely exhibited internationally, including group exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Basel, Kunstverein Hamburg and the 50 th Venice Biennale together with one-person exhibitions at The Renaissance Society, Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the University of California Berkeley Art Museum and the Dallas Art Museum. Beginning this summer Mirra will be an Artist-in-residence at the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD), Berlin and upon her return to the US in 2006 she will commence her position as assistant professor at Harvard University.
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