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PITTSFIELD, Mass. - Berkshiremuseum Press Release
 For the past few months, North Adams-based artist Ven Voisey has been working in full view of the public as Berkshire Museum’s artist-in-residence. A multidisciplinary artist who frequently incorporates sound, light, and motion into his work, Voisey drew upon the Museum’s exhibitions and environment for his show, Artifact, which is on view now through August 29 in the Wider Window gallery. Voisey will talk about his residency and its impact on his work during a free reception for Artifact on Thursday, July 22, at 5 p.m.
Voisey is Berkshire Museum’s second artist-in-residence. Last year Maggie Mailer set up her easel in the Museum’s galleries. Her experience resulted in a new body of painting directly influenced by the art on the Museum’s walls. Voisey’s experience has been different; during his residency he was most influenced by the Museum’s environment – visual, aural, and spatial – and drew inspiration from both objects displayed in the galleries (including mounted heads of wild animals on view during the special exhibition Armed & Dangerous: Art of the Arsenal) and the artifice of the Museum as a space for displaying the natural world in a controlled environment. The resulting installation includes sculpture, painting, photography, animation, and work across multiple media.
In many ways, Voisey’s residency was an act of performance art. One day he camped out in the Museum’s Crane Room, literally -- setting up a blue tent and recording noise and visitors in the space. On other days, he set up microphones in front of the mounted heads of a lion and a musk ox, with signs that could be interpreted either as prompting the long-dead animals to speak or encouraging visitors to make noise in an environment where noise is generally discouraged. His photographs documenting these juxtapositions became part of the exhibition, as much as the acts themselves were part of his creative residency. The centerpiece of Artifact refers to the sound people use to hush each other in spaces such as museums and libraries. A Sign for the Sound of Everything at Once begins with “Shhh” painted on the wall, embellished with motion-activated bulbs that flash in a visually “noisy” manner.
 Voisey describes his experience working at the Museum as ”… like being caught somewhere between the worlds of Joseph Campbell, Joseph Beuys, and the children's novel From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I keep thinking of disparate combinations of subject matter and the lines and points that run through it all -- relative vantage points that lead you to the next thing,” he says. “Even the physical spaces in the Museum each have a distinct atmosphere, but invite you to lurk through, guiding you from one subject matter/biome/pattern of thinking into the next.”
“We were very pleased with the work that came out of Maggie Mailer’s residency, and we specifically chose an artist for our second residency who we knew would bring an entirely new direction to the experience of working in the Museum,” says Berkshire Museum Executive Director Stuart Chase. “Ven’s take on the context of the Museum is bold and exciting; it’s a fitting inaugural installation for our Wider Window gallery.” The residency was funded in part by the Pittsfield Cultural Council, with funds from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Voisey is represented locally by Ferrin Gallery in Pittsfield.
Ven Voisey’s show Artifact runs through August 29; the public is invited to a free reception and artist talk on Thursday, July 22 at 5 p.m.
http://www.berkshiremuseum.org
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