Lump gallery/projects is very pleased to present quad valve, an installation by Dana Raymond. The project room will feature New Homes by Leah Bailis. quad valve is the fourth installation by Dana Raymond for Lump. �He is an associate professor of art at NC State and has exhibited both nationally and internationally. The project room will feature New Homes by UNC MFA candidate, Leah Bailis. Bailis was a recent recipient of 2004 Outstanding Student Achievement in Contemporary Sculpture Awards, Grounds for Sculpture, in Hamilton, NJ.
quad valve
“It is always a thrill to physically fabricate spaces from my imagination. From a very young age, intriguing passageways, chambers, and valves have fascinated me. At 10 years old, I remember discovering an old carburetor in the woods behind a local service station. After a thorough cleaning (so my dad would not insist that I get it out of the house), I started my adventure of taking it apart. I removed every bolt and screw, every cover and gasket, and all the valves and linkages. I found a new world of connected spaces inside the outer shell. Although the parts all fit into a small box, what I imagined, as I explored, expanded to the size of my family�s house. That experience was only the first in an ongoing series of investigations that have fed my artistic endeavors for the past thirty years.
“A second direct influence for this valve sculpture was my encounter with the saxophone during my undergrad art school study. I believe I enjoyed imagining being inside my alto as much as playing the music. The valves, as they opened and closed, presented a most curious system of passage. Initially I created drawings and prints inspired by views from inside the sax. Six years later, I found myself creating an expansive series of 3-D models combining those earlier graphics with carburetor butterfly valves.
“Finally, the time has arrived to experience my imagination at full scale. I am anxious to pass through the valve openings from chamber to chamber, with the very perspectives that have graced my mind for so many years.” Dana Raymond
Leah Ballis comments about New Homes, “The house interests me for its strength as a formal image-an exterior form that describes a space contained inside-and for its psychological function. The house can be understood as the self. I work from photographs of actual houses, varying the shape of the space and the sense of containment. I want my models to mirror the beauty, the sense of melancholy, and the tension that I find in the originals.”
Lump is located at 505 S. Blount St, Raleigh, NC. More information about our mission and exhibition programs can be found at lumpprojects.org.