2023 Visual artist
Michael Fortenberry
Numbers correspond to exhibition map
14. In Music Barn
Between Breaths, 2023, wood, steel, sound, 2’ x 70” x 2’; music score: Michael Simonelli
16. On Grounds
Remediation Movement, 2023, wood, PCB plastic, LED, 7' x 3' x 2'
Statement
Take a Breath is a series of interactive artworks that are designed for the participants’ slow and mindful, somatic engagement. Each sculpture is made to ground the audience in the now and override the strain, pace, and overwhelm of 21st-century life. These objects hold thoughtful consideration to the way they receive the human body, an invitation for an extended, healing embrace. Others can be carefully rolled from one point of stability to the next, every resting position activating a new sound pulled from tones and patterns of nature. These moving sonic sculptures are interlinked. When activated simultaneously, each one alters a single soundscape, unifying the collective. I see these calming works as offering a space of resistance to the trauma of overstimulation and the political, environmental, and social instability of our current moment. Wood is a constant collaborator in my work, it holds the memories and teachings of its lived experience.
Between Breaths are intended to be handled and rolled, engaging the body and mind to focus as they shift from movement to a paused point. As the artworks move through space, every stagnant position corresponds with a sound cue that changes the collective sound scape in the headphones. Each sculpture holds a range of natural sounds, tones, and patterns that are connected to soothing the mind or a frantic mind. Everyone responds to sounds differently, explore the combinations on your own, with friends, or strangers to find a soundscape that cultivates a sense of presence.
Michael manipulates raw materials, allowing for its affordances, potentials, and limits to guide his engagement. Captivated by creating objects that appear to be in constant movement through rigid and organic forms of nature, Michael creates a meditative experience by emulating the intricate patterns seen all around us. Michael’s work is committed to acts of resistance to increasing levels of shared anxieties in our modern reality. The work is in conversation to sensory somatic objects that induce personal and communal meditation with efforts to slow down and be with each other.
About Michael Fortenberry
Michael Fortenberry is an interdisciplinary artist and arts educator, currently the Visiting Instructor of Art - Sculpture at Hastings College in Nebraska. Michael is interested in collaborative action toward pressing issues of our current times. He received his BFA from the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, WA, focusing on anthropology, sociology, and sculpture. Michael earned his MFA from the State University of New York in New Paltz, NY, with an emphasis in sculpture in 2023. His research explored the intersection of art with our sensory-somatic systems to ease the rise of collective anxiety through body movement and engagement.
Michael has exhibited work throughout the United States, with works in private collections on display in Washington, Colorado, and New York. He just completed a six-month residency at the Glasshouse Art.Life.Lab resulting in a permanent outdoor installation, and currently is exhibiting at the Kaatsbaan Culture Park in Tivoli, NY. His work has been published in the Art and America Guide, Inside + Out Upstate New York, I Love New York, and others since the Spring of 2022.