RHYTHMIX CULTURAL WORKS

Counterpoint: Peter Tonningsen & Lisa Levine

Counterpoint is a collaborative photo-based project pushing the limitations of a singular vision towards a more fluid and complex perspective by interweaving two creative voices.

Opening Reception:
Friday, September 14th 6-9pm

2nd Friday Reception: October 12th 6-9pm

Show runs September 14th- November 3rd, 2012

This project is essentially a visual conversation intended to redefine the boundaries of authorship and the photographic document while creating a novel approach to defining landscape that moves beyond what either artist can do individually. 

Beginning with a single roll of film, one artist photographs various scenes throughout a specific landscape.  The film is then rewound, exchanged with the other artist to duplicate this process, with this exchange repeated multiple times, eventually creating a surprising and complexly layered document of that place. The multiple exposed films are scanned in sections of consecutive frames, the artists digitally extract discrete scenes from these sections, and then those scenes are reworked to accentuate selected formal and contextual components. This unique synthesis between digital and analog technologies relies on the distinctive characteristics and possibilities of each, yet also unites them into an aesthetically imaginative and innovative form. 

Opposing the singularity and clarity of conventional direct photographic representation, and embracing the serendipitous wonder of this atypical process, the resulting photographs are visually rich and highly complex compositions that describe a creative interchange composed of fragments of information, time, and space.  Such interpretive photographs are no longer picture perfect portals into reality, but now depict a multidimensional perspective that expands our notions of the photographic instant and reorders the appearance of photographic space. This approach allows the artists to convey a blending of visions consistent with musical counterpoint. 2012-06-28

Artist Bios

Lisa Levine and Peter Tonningsen met at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley where they are both artists-in-residence.  They live in Alameda and teach fine art photography at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.  As Lisa often explains, they are married, but not to each other and both have wonderful children that are the center of their lives.  Lisa and Peter have been collaborating on a photographic documentary project for several years utilizing a unique technique of repetitive shooting and exchange of film to create a series of layered exposures depicting multidimensional perspectives of time and place. Their work has been widely exhibited, including a recent solo show curated by the Oakland Museum, they have received several public art commissions, including an installation presently on view in a former Blockbuster storefront in the Dimond District of Oakland and a series created for a new addition to Highland Hospital.  Their work is included in the collections of the San Francisco Art Commission, S.F. Public Utilities Commission, and Alameda Art Commission, as well as several private collections.  You can see more examples of both their collaborative and individual work by visiting their websites: www.petertonningsen.com and www.lisalevinephoto.com

For more information, please call: 510-865-5060

or email: info@rhythmix.org

Gallery hours:
Wednesdays 6-9pm
2nd Fridays 6-9pm
During scheduled performances
Or call 510.865.5060
to schedule an appointment.