Art Exhibition: Roanoke Reef and Phenomenal Indicators

Lecture: Dr. Paul Snelgrove: Friday, Jan. 25, 6 - 6:45 p.m., Olin Theater Openings Reception: Friday, Jan. 25, following lecture until 9 p.m., Smoyer Gallery The Roanoke Reef is a collaborative project merging the talents of contributors from Roanoke College, the Roanoke Valley and beyond. This community endeavor is a nexus project that combines art, math and science in order to create crocheted structures that mirror natural coral reefs. This is a satellite of the worldwide Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project, created by Margaret and Christine Wertheim of the Institute For Figuring in Los Angeles. Incorporated in this exhibition will be “Untitled (Symbiosis),” created by Amanda Agricola and Mateo Marquez. This is an interactive installation that explores the concept of long-term mutuality between two or more biological entities. These reciprocal interactions are the basis of a vital coral reef, as well as a fundamental link in the development of ourselves. This installation goes beyond the basic biological correlation and enters into the contemporary, creating a balanced amalgamation of beings and technology. Craig Voligny’s exhibition “Phenomenal Indicators” will showcase work from the artist’s 2010-2011 Fulbright Program exhibition “Meridians and Parallels: Painted Abstractions of the Kenting Reef,” held at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Taiwan in 2011. Along with his Fulbright work, the artist will include new work that focuses on decomposing trees, fungi and plants as natural climate models. In this exhibit, decomposing logs with fungal blooms, algae expelling coral colonies and fantasmic representations of species long relegated to historical imagination are depicted as hybrid interpretations between natural representation and a developing scientific aesthetic. Dr. Paul Snelgrove is a biological oceanographer who studies seafloor ecosystems at Memorial University's Ocean Sciences Centre in Newfoundland.