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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 4, 2008

Harn Museum to Display All-video Exhibition

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Beginning June 17 visitors to the Harn Museum of Art will experience an innovative all-video exhibition entitled Cross-Currents in Recent Video Installation: Water as Metaphor for Identity. This traveling exhibition presents recent video installations by five international artists with ties to Africa, including Zwelethu Mthethwa, Ingrid Mwangi (with Robert Hutter), Moataz Nasr and Berni Searle. The artworks are large-scale with two of the works being projected on three screens at once measuring as large as 30 feet wide by 9 feet tall. Water and Down by the River each contain unique sculptural components—one being a pool of water below the screen to reflect the video image and the other a layer of soil with inscribed words.

Challenging and thought-provoking, each work on display uses water as a symbol for many concepts including family, identity, violence and spiritual transformation. The flow of water creates passages, but also erodes. Water is in a perpetual state of change and refuses containment. This description of water can be compared to the blending and dissolving of categories of race, identity, cultural heritage and a coherent family structure. Artist Berni Searle has written, “The self is...an ongoing process of construction in time and place...one’s identity is...constantly in a state of flux.” Interpretation of the works on display depends on the viewer’s experiences and knowledge of history, but the underlying commonality is that water is a staple in every community.

The exhibition is organized by Tufts University Art Gallery at the Aidekman Arts Center. Made possible locally by the Talking Phone Book with additional support from the Sidney Knight Endowment.

The exhibition will be on display through Sept. 7, 2008. Admission to the Harn is free. For more information call 352-392-9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.

Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art
The Harn Museum of Art at SW 34th St. and Hull Rd. is one of the largest university art museums in the country with nearly 7,000 works in its collection focusing on African, Asian, modern and contemporary art and photography. The museum enhances the activities of the University of Florida and serves a culturally diverse audience through educational programming. Admission is free. Museum hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Parking is free on weekends. The Camellia Court Café is open seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The museum and café are open until 9 p.m. Thursdays for Museum Nights during the UF Academic calendar due to the generous support of UF Student Government. For more information call 352-392-9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu

Media contact:
Tami Wroath, Interim Director of Marketing and Public Relations
352.392.9826 x116
twroath@harn.ufl.edu