“The Galileo Project” brings a faculty passion-project to life in RIC’s Bannister Gallery
- Kelcy Conroy, Managing Editor
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Kelcy Conroy
Managing Editor
“The main takeaway is blurring the boundaries between history and science and arts.” RIC graphic design professor Nancy Bockbrader told the Anchor.
History, science and the arts are blended in Bannister Gallery’s newest exhibition “The Galileo Project” with work from RIC art professors Doug Bosch and Richard Whitten. A reception for the exhibition took place Nov. 13 in the gallery.
This exhibition’s planning began seven years ago when Bosch and Whitten planned to create six artworks related to scientific instruments housed at the Museo Galileo in Florence, Italy. They then created six other artworks centered around imagined hybrids that the Museo Galileo could house. This resulted in many different pieces of artwork that stayed true to their original plan but highlighted both artists’ distinct styles.
Bosch and Whitten invited colleague Bockbrader to create a three-dimensional version of the catalogue handed out at the reception. Her piece works as an exhibition publication that is also part of the exhibition itself. An astronomical ring that appears on the cover of the catalogue resembles one of the sculptures created by Bosch.
Bosch, a sculptor, expanded the objects in the museum into the sculptural forms that one would see in a scientific museum. Three of his pieces were based off of an astronomical ring in the Museo Galileo. One of them is in its original spherical form however there are some abnormalities to its shape as one ring has fallen to the bottom of the structure and other rings are too tight. The other two rings are deconstructed presenting an idea of disarray. However, some pieces such as the “Polyhedral Sundial” take a more restorative form.
Whitten, a painter, presents his works painted on rectangular wood panels. On the long side of each panel is a circle. These circles “evoke thumb indexes and both draw the paintings together as a group and, by mirroring one another as if across the pages of a book, as individual pairs,” art professor Natasha Seaman writes. His objects are similar scientifically to Bosch’s however the paintings have their own whimsical and original spin.
“The Galileo Project” is on view until Dec. 5. RIC’s Bannister Gallery is open Monday through Friday from 12-8 p.m. and is located in Robert’s Hall.