Artist Louise Menzies Thinks like a Mountain at UConn

Auckland-based multimedia artist Louise Menzies is serving as artist-in-residence at the University of Connecticut (UConn) creating the exhibition, “Time to Think Like a Mountain,” which focuses on materials found in the university’s Alternative Press Collection from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Menzies has selected newspapers, flyers, photos, posters, and other media covering a variety of issues and reproduced them on hand-made papers.

“I find it interesting to work in an archive as an artist,” Menzies says. “It’s a very different process than if you’re doing any other kind of research.”

In fact it was her 2013 exhibition “World, Business, Lifestyle, Sport” at a contemporary art gallery in her hometown of Christchurch, that caught the attention of Barry Rosenberg, the director of UConn’s Contemporary Art Galleries.

Rosenberg saw the exhibition while travelling in New Zealand to visit studios and identify artists who might benefit from the resources available at UConn.

“The idea was to find artists who hadn’t been shown in the States but worked in an interdisciplinary way,” Rosenberg says.

Menzies says working with the resources available at a large research university has provided a novel experience for her as an artist that is different from her work in residence in an art gallery environment.

“Time to Think Like a Mountain” continues through 21 November at the Contemporary Art Galleries, Storrs, Connecticut.

Original article by Kenneth Best, UConn Today, October 9, 2014.