Nichola Kinch: Down the Drain
curated by Alexis Granwell
February 7– March 1, 2014
Opening Reception: Friday, February 7, 2014, 6pm -10pm

[Images]

PHILADELPHIA, PA- Tiger Strikes Asteroid is pleased to present a curatorial selection from TSA member Alexis Granwell. Please join us for our February exhibition, featuring the work of Nichola Kinch: Down the Drain.

Nichola Kinch received her MFA from Temple University, Tyler School of Art in PA and her BFA from Myers School of Art, University of Akron, Ohio. Ms. Kinch is an associate professor at Tyler School of Art. This exhibition includes a film project that was funded by a Vice Provost for the Arts Grant from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA USA.

In the essay The Mediation of the Vortex, author Matthew Borgen delivers a detailed and personal description of Nichola Kinchʼs apartment and an oddly poetic view of her bathroom. He describes her apartment as a microcosm for meditative contemplation that leads to invented scientific discovery.

From Borgen’s essay, The Meditation of the Vortex:
If one were to step into the tub and turn on the water there would be the customary sensation of water droplets landing from above. Looking down one would see this water roll over the contours of the body and subsequently follow the form of the basin to culminate in the generation of a tiny vortex at their feet. This vortex is the source of Kinchʼs film Drain, the latest in a series crafted for presentation in her work, Lithophane Electrotachyscope.
The electrotachyscope, invented in 1887 by Ottomar Anschutz, was one of several devices developed in parallel during the late 19th century for the purpose of creating a realistic illusion of movement. Prior to its creation, the Polish-born inventor had successfully developed an early version of stop motion photography. He placed positive transparent plates of his serial images around the circumference of a uniformly rotating wooden wheel operated by hand crank from behind the device. A strobe light mounted behind and at the apex of the wheel illuminated each image as it passed and created for the observer in front of the device, the illusion of motion.
In her custom-built electrotachyscope Kinch has replaced the traditional positive transparent plates with lithophanes, three- dimensional, translucent plaques, which, when backlit, reveal a detailed image. Traditionally these dimensional images were carved in wax and cast in porcelain. In this instance the frames of the film are carved into Corian by a CNC router.

Borgen is currently the Exhibitions Coordinator for Arcadia University. In addition he is an Adjunct Professor in the foundations curriculum and also teaches an advanced course in contemporary gallery installation.