Moira Chas, Johnathan Hopp, LoVid
September 30–December 15, 2022
Curated by Tali Hinkis and Lorraine Walsh
The Simons Center Gallery, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics (SCGP)
Stony Brook University, NY 11794
Opening Reception: Friday, September 30, 2022, 5:00 pm
5:00 pm: Reception, Simons Center Gallery and SCGP Lobby
5:30-6:30 pm: Artist Presentations. Della Pietra Family Auditorium, SCGP 103
Ways of Making: A Dialogue about Processes with Moira Chas, Johnathan Hopp, and LoVid
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The Simons Center for Geometry and Physics (SCGP) is honored to present artwork by mathematician Moira Chas, industrial designer Johnathan Hopp, and artist duo LoVid. The exhibition shares three distinct methodologies with intricate processes and ideas by artists that bring diverse backgrounds into their practice. They are informed by varied disciplines and inquiry, including mathematics and design, pattern and process, digital and handmade—each creating work that resonates with conceptual authenticity and ingenuity.
Ways of Making was curated and planned alongside a series of conversations around math, art, and design. As such, the exhibit is conceived as a place for dialogue, and visitors are welcome to reflect on potential connections while raising timeless questions for consideration—What is art? What is design? What is the difference between mathematical illustration and inspiration? And why do we love knots?
Moira Chas’ work is a handmade invitation to the math world, addressed to people of all ages and levels of knowledge, from children to experts. Chas’ hope is that by interacting with her pieces, discussing or thinking about their properties, the public will be led one step closer to understanding mathematical ideas.
As part of a continuum that includes her writing, math research and teaching—she is a Professor of Mathematics at Stony Brook University—her artifacts combine yarn and wire, cloth and zippers, to illustrate or suggest mathematical objects, questions, or theorems.
The techniques are basic: the simplest stitches of crochet and sewing including, in her most recent productions, the wire looping technique of Ruth Asawa. A single elementary process is repeated many, many times until the multiple iterations form something new.
Mathematics abstracts something about the world around us. Chas strives to make some of these abstractions more tangible, bringing them back in this way to the world around us.
Johnathan Hopp is an industrial designer working predominantly in ceramics, with a hands-on research and making approach. His practice brings together methods and modes of work from various making disciplines to investigate new possibilities for production and objects.
Objects are an archive of the accumulated processes and marks by which they are made. Software, printmaking, 3d printing, extrusion, slip casting are all participants in the making of Hopp’s objects, leaving their marks in the final product. As he strives to expand and elaborate on the range of ceramic objects Hopp uses a mix of traditional mass production, craft, and digital techniques. They are outcomes of design and production workflows intended to challenge and maximize the forms and languages they incorporate. Hopp is Assistant Professor of Design at New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University.
New York–based artist duo LoVid has worked together since 2001. LoVid’s work centers around the juxtaposition of media and material, physicality and virtuality, moving image and craft. Their practice incorporates a wide range of techniques and processes, from DIY electrical engineering to textile design and stained glass.
Throughout multiple projects, LoVid maintains a signature visual and sonic aesthetic of color, pattern, and texture density, incorporating glitch and noise into decor. Their process: navigating between the handmade and the machine-produced, highlights the challenges and possibilities of the networked age, particularly a sense of the world that intermixes virtual and physical, materials and simulations, fantasy and reality, hope and despair, connectivity and isolation.
Hours: Simons Center Gallery: Monday- Friday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm.
Closed Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays.
Contact: gallery@scgp.stonybrook.edu
Admission: Free and open to the public for all exhibitions and special events.
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Lorraine Walsh, Art Director for SCGP
Simons Center for Geometry and Physics
Stony Brook University
Stony Brook, NY 11794-5425
