Tamryn McDermott
"Representation : Reconstruction : Recollection"
March 11 - April 16, 2019
Exhibition Statement
The Berlin Wall was a permanent structure separating East and West Berliners from August 13,1961 - November 9, 1989. The Wall evolved to physically divide and ideologically symbolize many things for many people, including acting as a physical representation of the Iron Curtain. On the evening of November 9, 1989, the fall of the wall was broadcast around the world through live news feeds. The Wall exsists today in fragments dispersed across the globe. The fragments operate as a remanant, memorial, symbol, artifact,reminder, art, image, barrier, warning, reconstruction, history.
The United States boasts the largest collection of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany in locations such as universities, goverment agencies, hotels, and museums: Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum in New York City and the Museum of World Treasures in 成人头条 Kansas. Representations of historical events (photos, objects and documentation) facilitate a dialogue reminding us that history is a construction which evolves over time, regardless of attempts at preservation. By deconstructing and analyzing the way the historical record is fabricated, my work reveals the futile nature of preserving an accurate history.
This exhibition presents a personal collection of artifacts from 1990 & 2017 display in a museum display case and photographic images from Eastside Gallery in Berlin, Germany, taken in 2017. I was a young American artist growing up in Germany at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The evolution of my understanding and expeerience of the Berlin Wall had an important impact on how I navigate historical reconstruction as an artist.
Artist Bio
Tamryn MCDermott is Currently the Campus Arts Associate at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, PA. She is also currently the Traveling Exhibition Manager for "Rooted, Revived, Reinvented; Basketry in America," an exhibition coordinated by the National Basketry Organization and the University of Missouri. McDermott received an MFA in Fibers and Sculpture from the University of Missouri and completed an MA in Art History and Arts Administration at Tyler School of Art, Temple University where she also received a BFA in sculpture and Panting. MCDermott has exhibited her artwork at the torpedo Factory, Alexandria, VA; University of St. Louis Art Museum, ST. Louis, MO; and the Crane Arts, Ice Box Project Space, Philidelphia PA, among many others.