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Close but Not Touching

The 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibition

2022 MFA web 1500x1000
When

March 25 – April 30, 2022

Where

In-person Event

Stamps Gallery
201 South Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Map/Directions
Hours/Access

Details

Exhibition
Open to the public
Free of charge

Close but Not Touching:The 2022 MFA Thesis Exhibition is on view from March 25 — April 30, 2022 at Stamps Gallery. The exhibition brings together culminating projects by 2nd-year graduate students Nick Azzaro, Martha Daghlian, Razi Jafri, Natalia Rocafuerte, Ellie Schmidt, Kristina Sheufelt, and Georgia b. Smith.

Related Events

Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story

the tide pool room: a love story uses durational film, a hammock installation, and creative essays about swimming to meditate on the emotional crosscurrents of love, loss, friendship, swimming, and tide pools. An immersive installation with ten tie-dyed hammocks invites viewers to stay a while and watch a film made up of long takes of tidal pools and underwater landscapes in Southeast Alaska. The film lasts for six hours and thirteen minutes, the length of time between low tide and high tide on Earth, and is accompanied by an equally long score by Julie Zhu. The film draws from interdisciplinary influences including the permeable meditations of hydrofeminist theory, Norwegian Slow TV, and the ecological study of the in-between spaces of the ecotone.

Two tide pool fountain sculptures create water sounds that interact with the sounds of the film, and a large-scale ​‘tide-eye’ painting hangs on the wall. The viewer is also invited to take home a booklet of short essays by the artist, including a prose poem about cutting fish and a collection of stories about swims with a beloved friend.

For more information, visit elli​eschmidt​.com

A projection of a tide pool scene with anemones and coralline shines floor to ceiling on a wall. A woman and a child sit on a bean bag in the foreground and look at the projection. An empty hammock hangs from the ceiling, and a man stands to the left and looks at the projection. Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view Graduate Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view
A wall didactic, vinyl lettering on the gallery wall reads: "the tide pool room: a love story. Ellie Schmidt. You will always miss her, even when she is right in front of you, even if you mix your molecules together, even if you dissolve yourself and you dissolve her. It's a paradox: the closer you get, the more you realize true closeness is impossible. Your body knows this and more, however. Your body remembers being a water creature." A woman stands next to the wall and reads a small booklet in her hands. Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view Graduate Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view
A man sits ini a green hammock, wearing a mask. He looks up out of the camera frame and seems to be watching something. Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view Graduate Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view
A darkened room, with a white rug and three large bean bags. A projection on the wall of abstracted underwater images. Three colorful hammocks hang in the background against a black curtain, and a green hammock hangs in the foreground. Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view Graduate Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view
A darkened room, colorful hammocks in the background and a white shag rug and three bean bags in the foreground. A woman wearing a pink shirt and jeans sits in a purple hammock and looks at the edge of a screen to the left of the frame. A woman in a black coat, brown pants and boots leans against a blue bean bag and also watches the projected screen to the left. Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story Graduate Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story
A darkened room, colorful hammocks in the background and a white shag rug and three bean bags in the foreground. A woman wearing a pink shirt and jeans sits in a purple hammock and looks at the edge of a screen to the left of the frame. A woman in a black coat, brown pants and boots leans against a blue bean bag and also watches the projected screen to the left. Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story Graduate Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story
A man leans against a wall in a multicolored hoodie. He wears a mask and glasses and is reading a small booklet. Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view Graduate Ellie Schmidt: the tide pool room: a love story, installation view

Links/Resources

Stamps Gallery

201 South Division Street
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104
Map/Directions

Hours
  • Sunday: Closed
  • Monday: Closed
  • Tuesday: Closed
  • Wednesday: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Thursday: 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
  • Friday: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Saturday: 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
Closed for installation; reopens Friday, February 9, 2024.