FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

LILLIAN BALL

“LEAP OF FAITH”
An exhibit of photographs and video installations

Lillian Ball’s “Leap of Faith” will be on view at the newly opened Art Sites, at 651 West Main Street (Route 25), Riverhead from August 4 through August 27, 2006. A reception for the artist will be held Sunday, August 6, from 4-6, with a gallery talk at 5PM.  A more extensive talk will be presented by the artist on August 26 at 4:30 PM. The gallery is open Thursdays through Sundays, from noon to 5 PM. For other hours call 631 591 2401.

“Leap of Faith” is a body of work based on an ongoing community project that is preserving a globally rare “maritime freshwater interdunal swale” on the North Fork of Long Island. The work witnesses nature’s fragility. and the efforts of humans to both develop and protect this unique Southold wetland ecosystem. Through the dedicated work of the artist, neighbors, landowners, biologists, and government officials, several acres will be permanently preserved. Without the collaboration evident in this project, economic pressures would have allowed more development in this area between Long Island Sound and Great Pond. Plants such as the endangered Iris Prismatica  (this is the only known occurrence in all Southold town) and native cranberries would have disappeared. And the job continues, for more land needs to be preserved from development, but the very act of preservation increases the value of the land needing preservation.

The boundaries between activism and art blur in these new media sculptures by Lillian Ball. She creates a series of installations, each set in a darkened space, where video projections hover as digital spirits on mounds of sand.  In another piece, cranberries, handpicked from North Fork wetlands have fallen to the bottom of an enormous hour glass in a video projection with their natural habitats.  Large photographs record hints of human intervention within the natural textures and fragile plants of this sensitive ecosystem, acting as harbingers of change.

Lillian Ball, is an internationally acclaimed artist, whose solo exhibitions have included, in New York City,  the Socrates Sculpture Park, and The Sculpture Center, Rubin Spangle Gallery, and Queens Museum.  Internationally, Lillian Ball has exhibited in Canada, London, Switzerland, France, and Austria.  Her fellowships and awards, including the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in the Visual Arts, and National Endowment for the Arts, Individual Sculpture Grant, are extensive as is her experience as a lecturer, panelist and juror.  Her works have been extensively reviewed in prestigious books and journals including the New York Times, Art in America, and The Village Voice.

Art Sites is a fitting venue for this show, as the site incorporates wetlands along the Peconic River. The gallery renovation utilized an existing structure instead of new and used the hay bale separations, evident in Ball’s works, to protect the wetlands from construction. The building incorporates  such “green” concepts as geothermal heating and cooling, introduced drainage, and cisterns to capture rainwater. Parking was placed in the rear of the structure to preserve two ancient oaks and maintain views of the natural landscape. Both Lillian Ball’s “Leap of Faith” and Art Sites’ architecture maintain a consistent environmental perspective.