Mike Berg
Run My Hand Around the Font

July 15 - September 3, 2006 in the CoCA Installation Room.
Contact: Daniel Kany, 206+728.1980

Sculptures by Mike Berg. Mike Berg's Run My Hand around the Font features three self-lit cylindrical metal sculptures. The bulk of the flat metal has been cut away so the pieces have a screen-like feel with calligraphic rhythms. Berg begins his works as ink drawings and through a photo-etching process, achieves metal sculptures. The form and feel Berg's sculpture is in part inspired by Karalama, an Islamic calligrapherıs exercise page. According to Berg: "I am not religious but I am moved by the organic logic and rhythms of Byzantine and Islamic decorative patterning‹particularly Arabic script. I am not interested in narrative or symbolism: I find the calligraphic form is transporting enough." Bergıs work in this mode has concentrated on flat sheets that project complex shadow play on the wall behind them. "This free-standing cylinder form is new," he explains, "sbut rather than leading me to the heaviness of a monolith, a closer metaphor might be a scroll: you see the script and understand that it contains something. But the story is not revealed. The idea of story without the story is abstract. Graphic but abstract: this mirrors the two sides of my art: abstract and formal. Installation photo. Berg has a studio in Eastern Washington but lives and works most of the year in Instanbul, Turkey. His gallery representation includes Anita Friedman Gallery (NYC) and Gallery Nev (Istanbul). Run My Hand Round the Font will also include several of Bergıs recent works of embroidered cloth. CoCA serves the Pacific Northwest as a catalyst and forum for the advancement, development, and understanding of contemporary art. CoCA provides opportunities for the art audience in this region to view new and experimental artwork firsthand in exhibitions which show the work of international, national and local artists.