Mariliana Arvelo with James Patten

Senses

September 25 — October 30, 2005

Reception Saturday, September 24, 6 – 8 p.m.

Mariliana Arvelo’s “Senses” project documents the experience of the deaf-blind community in Boston through a series of photographs and etching that are intended to be touched. Arvelo explores the interdependence of our senses and the private, intimate and expressive qualities of communicating with sign language.

Photographs will be displayed in conjunction with photographic images, which have been cut into wood by Arvelo’s husband and collaborator James Patten. Sighted visitors to the exhibit will be able to see the photographs, while the deaf blind community will be able to experience images by touching the laser cut wood. Both text and Braille signage will be available to visitors, challenging our perception of ways in which we “see” and experience the world through sight and touch.

Mariliana Arvelo was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1979. She graduated in 2002 from the New England School of Photography. Arvelo’s work focuses on beauty, character, and experience of those struggling to cope with adversity. Her work has been shown at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts, the ARC Gallery in Chicago, the Panopticon Gallery of Photography in Boston, and the Gallery at the Piano Factory in Boston, among others. She was the July 2004 featured artist at Boston University’s Photographic Resource Center. The exhibition has been made possible in part by a grant from the Saint Botolph Club Foundation.

American artist James Patten creates interactive works in diverse media with themes including performance and social commentary. Patten has exhibited or performed in venues such as the Transmediale festival in Berlin, the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, the Museo d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, the Ars Electronica Center in Linz, Austria, the Instituto Tomie Othake in São Paulo, and the Art Interactive gallery in Cambridge, MA. Most recently, Patten’s Corporate Fallout Detector was selected for exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Also a practicing designer, Patten’s work has been recognized in several international design competitions including the International Design Magazine’s 2004 Annual Design Review, and the 2004 Industrial Design Excellence Awards. Patten holds an S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. Patten is currently working on his Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab.