NEWSLETTER
Saratoga Springs, NY (March 9, 2022) — The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College invites the public to an in-person artist talk and workshop with Laura Splan on Thursday, March 24, at 7 pm.
Learn how to spin yarn using fiber from laboratory llamas, who produce antibodies for our vaccines, while exploring emerging narratives in the contemporary biomedical landscape. Splan will introduce her installation in the Tang’s elevator Elevator Music 42: Laura Splan—Rhapsody for an Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus, which includes a sound piece and a rug made from the wool of laboratory llamas and alpacas. She will lead a discussion around scientific and conceptual themes in her work that examines hidden systems, invisible labor, and interspecies entanglements. Splan will lead a technical demonstration of spinning fiber on an electric wheel. Each participant will have an opportunity to try their hand at the wheel, and the first twenty participants will receive a small sample of laboratory llama yarn spun by the artist.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information and the latest guidelines, call the Tang Visitors Services Desk at 518-580-8080, email tang@skidmore.edu, or visit http://tang.skidmore.edu.
About the Artist
Laura Splan is a transdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of science, technology, and culture. Her research-driven, conceptually based art practice connects hidden artifacts of biotechnology to everyday lives through embodied interactions and sensory engagement using a wide range of media, including experimental materials, digital media, and craft processes. Her work has been exhibited around the world, including at the 2021 Bruges Triennial, BioBAT Art Space (Brooklyn), the New York Hall of Science, the David J. Spencer CDC Museum (Atlanta), the Museum of Contemporary Craft (Portland), the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), and the Beall Center for Art + Technology (Irvine). She has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Institute for Electronic Arts at Alfred University, Harvestworks, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. Splan lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, in a building that has been both a pharmaceutical factory and a knitting factory.
About the Tang Teaching Museum
The Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College is a pioneer of interdisciplinary exploration and learning. A cultural anchor of New York’s Capital Region, the Tang’s approach has become a model for college and university art museums across the country—with exhibition programs that bring together visual and performing arts with interdisciplinary ideas from history, economics, biology, dance, and physics, to name just a few. The Tang has one of the most rigorous faculty-engagement initiatives in the nation, and a robust publication and touring exhibition program that extends the museum’s reach far beyond its walls. The Tang Teaching Museum’s award-winning building, designed by architect Antoine Predock, serves as a visual metaphor for the convergence of art and ideas. The Museum is open to the public on Thursday–Sunday from noon to 5 p.m., with extended hours until 9 pm on Thursdays. tang.skidmore.edu
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Media contact:
Michael Janairo
Head of Communications | Tang Teaching Museum at Skidmore College
mjanairo@skidmore.edu | 518-580-5542
Caption info for attached image: Laura Splan spins yarn in her studio. Courtesy of the artist.