. Hinterland | Art.Event.Space

Kindred Spirits
by Susan Froyd, Westword

Three local artists cross paths and celebrate a birthday.

KINDERED SPIRITS

The repercussions of obsessive collector Andrew Novick’s exhibition at the now-defunct Lab in Belmar still reverberate. One unexpected upshot of the whole fantabulous show was that it led to Novick and artists Viviane Le Courtois and Sabin Aell realizing that, in addition to sharing a love of travel and collecting things, they’ll all turn forty this year. There’s got to be a show in that, they agreed, and Aell, who runs the Hinterland art event space in RiNo, offered a place for the ensuing installation to evolve. The exhibit, Crossed Existence: 40 Years of (un)related memories, opens June 27 with a birthday party/reception from 6 to 10 p.m. at Hinterland, 3254 Walnut Street.

And what will the joint installation look like? It begins with a spiderweb of string descending from the ceiling of the gallery. “We’ll be hanging objects and photos from the strings that retrace forty years of movement, forming a cross-connection between our lives,” Le Courtois explains. “We have a lot of common points.” Since all three are avid collectors, there will be plenty to look at as this trio of personal paths meet and diverge.

Crossed Existence will also be open for viewing from 6 to 10 p.m. on July 3, and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on July 11 (or by appointment); for details, go to www.sabinaell.com/hinterland or call 720-309-1764.

Crossed Existence at HINTERLAND 2009
Crossed Existence at HINTERLAND 2009

SHOW JUNE/JULY


Crossed Existence
40 year of (un)related memories

A mixed media installations
by Sabin Aell, Viviane Le Courtois and Andrew Novick

Sabin Aell, Viviane Le Courtois and Andrew Novick are 3 globally-minded creative individual born during the summer of 1969. After looking at their similar passion for traveling, fascination by popular culture, and their obsessive collections of objects and photographs, they decided to create an installation together to celebrate the first 40 years of their (un) related memories. The piece forms a spatial web of strings and wire. The lines retrace movements in different directions across the globe, finally crossing paths in Denver. Each artist selected a type of line (wire, jute string and waxed string), the lines cross in locations where 2 or 3 of the artists have been. The installation crosses the boundaries of individuality and national origin, and mixes art and life in an interesting way.

Mixing and comparing visual memories was an interesting process. It took each of artist 40 years to collect these memories, and a month to select from the thousands of photographs and objects that they have collected. Each object and photograph has a story connected to it. Visitors can remember their own memories and spend hours looking up at all the details.

Sabin Aell was born in Austria in 1969 and moved to Denver in 2006. She is a photographer, multi media graphic designer and filmmaker. She exhibited in Germany and Croatia, and participated in exhibitions and film festivals internationally. She opened Hinterland in 2008.

Viviane Le Courtois was born in France in 1969 and moved to Denver in 1997. She has exhibited in France, Boston, and extensively in Colorado. She has traveled in over 40 countries using shoes by the movement of walking. She creates installations, sculptures and prints. She is currently an artist in Residence at Redline and the winner of the 2009 Mastermind award in Visual Arts.

Andrew Novick was born in Colorado in 1969 and lives in Denver. He recently exhibited "The Astounding Problem of Andrew Novick" at the Lab at Belmar". Andrew is an unusual and obsessive collector of things, a performer, a fan of popular Japanese culture, and never planned to be an artist.

Crossed Existence at HINTERLAND 2009
Crossed Existence at HINTERLAND 2009