.

For immediate release: December 1, 2001 Contact: David, Exhibitions Coordinator Wood Turning Center: (215) 923-8000 Or: THE WOOD TURNING CENTER ANNOUNCES INTERNATIONAL TURNING EXCHANGE RESIDENTS FOR 2002 Slides available upon request The Wood Turning Center is proud to announce the 2002 International Turning Exchange (ITE) residents. The ITE residents will spend eight weeks working and living together in the summer of 2002 at the University of the Arts (UArts) located in Philadelphia, Pa. This is the eighth consecutive year that the Wood Turning Center has offered this unique and exceptional residency program. Four lathe artists, one photojournalist, one furniture maker/educator and one scholar were selected for participation, representing five countries: Germany, Australia, France, Canada and the USA. The furniture maker/ educator position that began in 1999 has been employed to cultivate a developmental relationship between the artists in the fields of furniture and lathe-turned art. The residents are: artists, Rüdiger Marquarding and Friedrich Kuhn, Germany, Gordon Ward, Australia, Laurent Guillot, France; photojournalist, Robin Rice, USA; educator/furniture maker, Gordon Peteran from Canada; and scholar, Ritchie Garrison from the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, USA. An exhibit of the objects and statements produced by the ITE residents, and photos depicting the ITE experience, will be shown at the Wood Turning Center in Philadelphia. This exhibition, entitled allTURNatives: Form & Spirit, opens July 27, and will tour to several other venues around the USA. Along with the exhibit opening, the ITE residents will present panel discussions and a slide show depicting their residency experience. Rüdiger Marquarding, of Wustrow, Germany, began turning due to the insistence of his youngest children. After receiving spin tops from a wood turner at a handicrafts fair, the delighted offspring wanted Papa to make "lots of spin tops." Rüdiger purchased a small lathe and, in addition to the tops, started creating wooden eggs, small boxes and bowls, and jewelry. In 1995 illness forced him to give up his teaching profession and his hobby became his occupation. This serendipitous career change allowed him to indulge in and experiment with making wooden jewelry using naturally cracked wood. The jewelry lead to vessels and sculpture and Rüdiger will explore all these forms while in Philadelphia. Friedrich Kuhn of Berlin, Germany is a man of eclectic talents. He lists experimental films, theater, playing modern electric and acoustic music, making furniture, designing electric bass guitars and sculpting, as well as lathe turning, as his artistic pursuits. Friedrich harvests wood and roots from the area around Berlin and works the materials wet. He considers it vital that he be open-minded and let the process determine the outcome. This philosophy applies to his work as well as his ITE residency: "If each resident is willing to share personal experiences and concepts, it will be possible for everybody to learn five times more than he or she can do alone." Gordon Ward who hails from Western Australia, endeavors to invest his pieces not only with pleasure for the eye but a "cor blimey" aspect. That is, how did he do that? Gordon began turning in 1984; he has since won awards for his work and has tirelessly demonstrated his skills at exhibitions throughout Australia and New Zealand. He salvages the majority of his timber from the forest floor and emphasizes that the affinity between the forest and himself is evident in his designs. He values the creative energy that permeates a gathering of talented artisans and looks forward to the 2002 ITE for the new horizons that will result from the sharing of ideas and methods. Laurent Guillot from France, like Friedrich Kuhn, comes to turning via the musical realm: he is a professional drummer and has restored and created musical instruments. Predominance of the use of natural materials in instrument-making appealed to Laurent's aesthetic and he continues to choose wood, primarily green, as the primary resource for his sculptural work. He will bring plans of his home-made oak lathe to the ITE in an effort to share with, as well as gain inspiration from, his fellow ITE participants. Robin Rice is a resident of Philadelphia and has a lengthy list of critical reviews and historical essays in her writing portfolio. She has a long-standing interest in craft and was introduced to wood turning through work with the curators of the Center's Challenge VI exhibition in 2001. The opportunity to participate in the ITE residency program will allow Robin to expand her knowledge of the major issues and important figures in the field of wood turning. She plans to interview the artists at the beginning of the session and then, at the end, will question each as to whether his personal and professional goals were achieved. She notes: "I have observed that an observer is often a catalyst. Simply having someone on the scene who is interested and willing to listen subtly enhances the creative environment." Through her writing, photography and presence, Robin will undoubtedly enhance the spirit of the 2002 ITE. Gordon Peteran, is an artist and teacher living in Toronto. He has designed and executed a number of site-specific architectural installations and his work is in the collections of the National Library of Canada, the Government of Ontario and the Chalmers Family Foundation. Gord describes woodworking and metalworking as his "paints and brushes. They possess the appropriate physical resistance and wield the kind of sensual, visual impact that allow my investigations to become real." He anticipates the 2002 ITE with a list of questions, whose answers he hopes will benefit all of the participants in the years after their residency in Philadelphia. Ritchie Garrison is Associate Professor in the Office of Advanced Studies at Winterthur and Associate Director of the Museum Studies Program at the University of Delaware. He is presently completing a study of a father and son carpentry business in Massachusetts before the Civil War. Architectural turnings were part of their output and Ritchie is researching the size and power source of their lathe. His association with the ITE residents will better familiarize him with the procedures of lathe turning and provide the historical roots to the contemporary context in which the ITE will function. The participants will begin their residency in Philadelphia on June 8th. They will work independently and collaboratively throughout June and July to design and execute their work. The program ends on August 5th at Emma Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. The first two weeks focus on orientation, structured research and exploration. There are opportunities for the residents to travel throughout the region visiting museums including the Wharton Esherick Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Winterthur Museum, Library & Garden, Hagley Museum & Library, the Renwick Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as well as meeting fellow artists and collectors. The next six weeks focus on intensive hands-on studio work as well as the Open Community Day that will take place July 14th. The Open Community Day is co-organized by the Wood Turning Center and the University of the Arts along with Bucks Woodturners, Keystone Woodturners, and Lehigh Woodturners, local chapters of the American Association of Woodturners. Residents will have continual 24-hour access to a fully equipped woodshop located at the University of the Arts in downtown Philadelphia. During this time, they will develop a body of work. The ITE will culminate at the Emma Lake facilities of the University of Saskatchewan, where a bi-annual gathering of 100 artists, turners, furniture makers, painters, sculptors and enthusiasts will explore the possibilities of the medium theoretically, practically, and socially over a period of 5 days. This event, jointly sponsored by the Saskatchewan Craft Council and the Wood Turning Center, has proven seminal in the evolution of craft and art internationally. 2002 ITE Residency Program Selection Committee (selecting the lathe turners): Lisa Tremper Hanover, Director, Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art; and artists, Jack Larimore and Doug Finkel. The International Turning Exchange is supported in part by generous grants from the Windgate Charitable Foundation, NEA, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Friends of the Wood Turning Center. The Wood Turning Center is accepting applications for the 2003 and 2004 ITE residencies. For further information on the ITE program, contact the Wood Turning Center, 501 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19106, USA, Tel: 215-923-8000; Fax: 215-923-4403; Or: . Website: www.woodturningcenter.org