Art in the Office for Sustainability

 

The Palimpsest Series
an exhibition of photographs by Bill Davis
currently showing at the Office for Sustainability


pal.imp.sest

noun // a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain

"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful to do so. [S/he] studies it because [s/he] takes pleasure in it and [s/he] takes pleasure in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful it would not be worth knowing and life would not be worth living."
-- Henri Poincare, Science and Method

According to the artist - This is knowledge as aesthetic experience. While chalkboards were material used for this emerging series, the resulting images are more akin to palimpsests. Initially used by monks, palimpsests are partially erased and rewritten instructional parchments, which continue to transmit traces of previous information. The diagrams and marks I have drawn postulate observations on the interrelationships of time, light, sound, and perception.

Artist's Biography - U.S. native Bill Davis is an artist and researcher who has worked and lived in North and South America, Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. Before receiving his M.F.A., he moved from Chicago to Prague to maintain a studio in Europe, co-develop Ohio University’s Study Abroad in Prague Program, teach photography, lecture, and exhibit. He has since secured grants to work in Peru’s Amazon basin and Cusco, Paris- IESA (Institut d’Etudes Superieures des Arts),  Galicia, Spain (Torre Pujales Foundation- Costa De Morte Museum of Contemporary Art), Korea (Rotary Fellow), Vermont (Cone Editions/WMU Technology Grant), Michigan (Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo- “Autism and Visual Art”), exhibit in Australia (Federal Arts Funding Body), UK (University of Leeds), Ukraine (Ohio Arts Council/CKSCP/Ukrainian Union of Art Photographers), and produce a $25,000 WMU CFA Fellowship international study on children and young adults with autism. Davis’ photos are in collections in the U.S. and abroad- privately, publicly, and in museums. He began his teaching career at Western Michigan University in 2004.