DISPATCH - AUG 11, 2012 (12:10 p.m.)

MONTAUK & BRIDGEHAMPTON, NY

Breaking with tradition, the Parrish Art Museum is presenting site-specific installations that have nothing to do with their current home in Southampton. Both installations weave the outdoors with their artworks.

Alice Hope opens an outdoor installation today at Camp Hero State Park in Montauk. The large-scale installation, "Under the Radar," is composed of steel plates covered with tens of thousands of ferrite magnets. It sits upon a 120'  x 60' asphalt pad that's adjacent to the park's iconic radar tower. An opening will be held tonight (Sat) from 6 to 8 p.m. It remains on view through Aug 31, 2012.

Next weekend, Jill Musnicki presents a three-screen video installation of nearly 100,000 still images captured by motion-activated surveillance cameras that were placed through the East End. "what comes around" will be presented at the Engine Barn at the Bridgehampton Historical Society on Aug 18 and 19. An opening reception will be held on Friday (Aug 17) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Both art pieces are part of The Parrish Road Show, an off-site creative summer series. It launched on June 30, 2012 with the Eat Drink Local Film Festival at Silas Marder Gallery in Bridgehampton.

Programs included a bicycle tour of art-related sites in Springs, a site-specific project by Jameson Ellis installed at The Bridge golf course in Bridgehampton and the Rapid Deployment Meditation Unit by Maziar Behrooz that was sited at an East Hampton home.

The Parrish Road Show is curated by Andrea Grover, curator of programs for the Parrish Art Museum.

"Under the Radar" and "what comes around" are the final two artist projects in the series.

"Parrish Road Show specifically was envisioned as an artist-driven series of offsite exhibitions and programs," said Andrea Grover, curator of programs for The Parrish Art Museum. "It's a way to move our loyal audience (psychologically and physically) toward our new facility in Water Mill, and the future."

Hope, Musnicki, Ellis and Behrooz were selected because of their talent and their ability to create site-specific works, said Grover. All live and work in the Hamptons. Part of the Parrish's mission is spotlighting artists who help continue the tradition of the East End of Long Island as an artist colony.

While the Parrish picked the artists, the artists picked the location and developed their project. Both of the new artworks to be unveiled are designed to be site-specific and respond to the history and folklore of the region, said Grover.

In developing "Under the Radar," Hope connected with the former military site that has conjured tales of conspiracy, time travel experiments and devious activities springing from the Cold War era.

"The piece is cordoned off by a six-foot chain link, and has the appearance of an active archeological site, or a military stockpile," said Grover. "Alice was very much responding to the architectural vocabulary of this disused military site– its boarded-up former barracks, fenced-off areas and warning signage, as well as the many conspiracy theories that allege that the site has residual electromagnetic fields related to Cold War era psychological warfare and even military time travel experiments."

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"Under the Radar" by Alice Hope. Courtesy Parrish Art Museum.

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Detail of "Under the Radar" by Alice Hope. Courtesy Parrish Art Museum.

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Musnicki's "what comes around" was over four months in the making. She installed motion-activated surveillance cameras in remote places where wildlife likes to roam. Nearly 100,000 still images were captured.

At next week's exhibition, the images will be presented in a three-screen video installation, printed photography and in a book.

"Jill was interested in documenting the intersections of wild life and human life, and finding the edges of the region's built-environment," said Grover. "Many of the sites were selected because they were places that held intrigue for the artist during her childhood in Bridgehampton. These are the kind of off-the-beaten path environments that kids like to explore– "no man's land," so-to-speak. She and I were both surprised and delighted by the moments captured, even at locations that are far from well-traveled."

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Image from "what comes around" by Jill Musnicki. Courtesy Parrish Art Museum.

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Image from "what comes around" by Jill Musnicki. Courtesy Parrish Art Museum.

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Image from "what comes around" by Jill Musnicki. Courtesy of the artist.

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Image from "what comes around" by Jill Musnicki. Courtesy of the artist.

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The Parrish Road Show was launched as part of a wider effort to broaden the traditional functions of an art museum. Programs were designed to engage the community and area artists in projects that are atypical for the East End, said Grover.

As a whole, the goal of the Parrish Road Show is to connect with the museum's audience--both new and established--while fostering "...pride of place and celebrating the vibrancy of the region," she said.

Programs that launched in the last year include East End Stories on Screen and Lightning Round. Platform--a new program that will be set in the new museum building in Water Mill--continues the effort, said Grover.

Sitting on the cusp of the final two installations, the green light has already been given to The Parrish Road Show to become a recurring summer series by Parrish Art Museum director Terrie Sultan.

"The show rolls on," said Grover.

BASIC FACTS: “Under the Radar” by Alice Hope opens tonight (Saturday) from 6 to 8 p.m. at Camp Hero State Park. It remains on view through Aug 31, 2012.

"what comes around" by Jill Musnicki has an opening reception on Friday (Aug 17) from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Engine Barn of the Bridgehampton Historical Society. The exhibition remains on view through Aug 19, 2012.

The Parrish Road Show is curated by Andrea Grover, curator of programs for the Parrish Art Museum.

For details, visit www.parrishart.org.

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© 2012 Pat Rogers and Hamptons Art Hub. All rights reserved.

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