Tim Watkins
The Dreaming
Sculpture/Installation

Canadian Artist, residing in N.Y.

MEDIA RELEASE

Tim Watkins, a native of Calgary currently residing in Brooklyn, New York, will exhibit a new multi-media installation entitled 'The Dreaming.' Opening in Mercer Union's West Gallery Thursday May 24 at 8:00 pm, this exhibition represents the artist's first solo exhibitlon in Toronto.

Watkins' installations are concerned with the tenuous relationship between nature and technology, and the pawning of our present for the future. His kinetic sculptures are designed to emulate natural forms. By using contemporary materials and technology, his installations present a reversal of the real and the simulated.

Light, ambient sound and movement are integral to both his outdoor environmentally oriented projects and his in-gallery installations. Watkins' installation The Dreaming is a kinetic environment made up of three varied components. A number of tall 'breathing' structures, six to ten feet high, rhythmically open and close as though alive. Surrounded by these forms is an oval shaped shallow reflecting pool. Above this, a suspended glowing fragment of ice drips into the pool. This combination of natural elements with mechanical moving parts and simulated surfaces creates a hyper-real theatre of spectacle within the gallery space.

Tim Watkins has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, as well as in Calgary, Lethbridge and Brisbane, Australia, since 1977. To complement the exhibition, a public talk and slide presentation by Watkins will take place at Mercer Union at 7:00 pm, just prior to his opening Thursday May 24. Admission is free.