Buffalo Rising Online

Sep 23rd 2008, 8:15am By buffalorising

The Buffalo Museum of Science has a new exhibit: Culture Quest. Culture Quest aims to chronicle how the Museum came to gather over 600,000 specimans and artifacts on display and shared with other museums. The exhibit examines the questions of why and how museums collect and why everyone collects. It also demonstrates the history of the Museum and its main contributors.

One of the more interesting amenities included with the price of your admission are the three photography exhibits the Museum has on display. Each offers a unique perspective on the topics of water, human vanity, and violence. The information on each exhibit along with a summary provided by the Museum that describes the exhibit are below. For more information on Culture Quest or the photography exhibits, visit the Museum’s website or call 896-5200.

“TAO OF WATER”: September 20 – October 5, 2008

Visiting from the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York, “Tao of Water” is a visual reflection on various ways of seeing water. It is an attempt to go beyond appearances to capture the direct experience of water in its myriad manifestations. Photographed by Zen Master John Daido Loori over a period of two years among the rivers and streams near Raquette Lake in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, “Tao of Water” explores the spirit and multi-faceted nature of water. “Water is neither strong nor weak, neither wet nor dry, neither moving nor still, neither cold nor hot, neither being nor nonbeing, neither delusion nor enlightenment.”

“VANITAS”: September 20, 2008 – January 4, 2009

With her “Vanitas” images, photographer Patty Wallace presents images that invoke mutability, the inevitable force of entropy and the futility of human vanity in the face of the temporality of the material world. Her subjects, apparently mundane yet finely crafted objects, are presented in a manner that forces our perception through a subaqueous patina evocative of the passage of time. Her Vanitas series is therefore a response to human isolation; everything she depicts is charged with special significance, “a translation of the commonplace into a language of uncommon meanings that transcend literal readings.” Wallace is a Western New York-based artist and teacher whose principal mediums are photography, painting and video. She is the former photographer for the Andy Warhol Foundation and the Brooklyn Museum. Her work has been widely exhibited in the U.S., Canada and Germany in individual and group shows and as part of multimedia collaborative installations.

“WEEK WITHOUT VIOLENCE”: October 3 – December 31, 2008

The YWCA of Western New York has partnered with Crisis Services and the Buffalo Society of Artists to hold an art exhibition featuring photographs taken by inner-city teenagers that depict a life without violence. Teens were provided with disposable cameras in September and asked to take photos of scenes from their lives which best captures the week’s theme. Members of the Buffalo Society of Artists helped lead discussions with teenagers to familiarize them with elements of artistic expression, including issues around composition and framing as well as the use of metaphor and irony. Their photographs were submitted to the art exhibition competition. Local artists – acting as judges, selected first, second and third place prizes. Winners will be announced at the opening reception on Friday, October 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Buffalo Museum of Science. The winners, as well as other photographers, will be present to discuss their work. The public is invited to attend the opening reception on Friday, sponsored by Key Bank.