Van Fleet’s exhibit contains three major installation works, all of which incorporate a button motif – using actual buttons, painted images of buttons, or button-like disks.

Ice Shelf is comprised of groupings of 4x6 inch rectangular metal plates held together by multicolored cable ties, painted with the circle and button motif. The piece references the breakup of the Antarctic ice shelf. The plates are mounted away from the wall, allowing a view of the reverse sides that contain the tails of the cable ties, suggesting uprooted masses floating free over the surface of the gallery walls. Just as the ice shelf is melting, changing, and floating away from the Antarctic, this installation has morphed into different forms in previous exhibits at Enigma and Studio Place Arts, and will appear in a new form at FLYNNDOG.

Circular Statements, 8 feel tall and 12 feet wide, is made up of hundreds of buttons and painted tin disks in a grid of fine steel wire. The piece is held off the wall by a steel frame, and the shadows of the disks are projected on the wall behind.

Music of the Spheres consists of a group of 36x36 inch panels with more loosely-assembled painted disks of many different sizes, many of which are stacked in a way that suggests targets, or the rings of Saturn. Like the other work in this exhibit, the grid-and-disks assemblies are mounted away from the wall to cast dramatic shadows.

In addition to these large installation pieces, the exhibit contains a grouping of the artist’s smaller button encasements dating from 2004, as well as new work on mylar.

“We see this wonderful circular form in subatomic particles and distant planets and stars,” says the artist, “and I am very pleased with how these pieces communicate a sense of the cosmic flow of space-time.”

“The humble (and decidedly terrestrial) button and the cheerful colors I’ve used in these pieces make this exhibit feel pretty upbeat. Even with global warming and messing with the atom on our planet, the universe is a rollicking and dynamic place, and this work celebrates that.”

For further information, contact the artist at 802 563 2486, or janetvanfleet@pivot.net.

Music of the Spheres

Installation shot showing Circular Statements at left, Music of the Spheres, Ice Shelf at far right

Installation shot showing Ice Shelf at right, Music of the Spheres, Circular Statements at far left

Music of the Spheres (detail of installation)

Music of the Spheres (detail of installation)