BALTIMORE--MICA hosts an exploration of telepathic messages visualized through art in The Telepathy Drawings, Wednesday, Jan. 27-Wednesday, March 10, in Pinkard Gallery of Bunting Center, 1401 W. Mount Royal Ave. A reception will take place Thursday, Jan. 28 from 5-7 p.m.

In 2005, adjunct photography faculty John Morris '01 (M.F.A. Photography and Digital Imaging) and Christina Ayala '00 (Mount Royal School of Art) began telepathy drawings by transmitting and recording telepathic messages.

"The artistic collaboration is formed through a system of belief while working through the telepathic process," Morris said.

Each session lasts seven minutes, while Morris transmits a singular thought to Ayala. During the transmission, Ayala receives and transcribes the message through drawing, and Morris photographs the complete session with a large format camera. This image stands along with the drawing as a document of the collaboration.

"The project explores and confronts the junction of meaning, belief and collaborative nature in art making and viewing," Morris said. "The exhibition visitors, who develop their own criteria for the project's success, can examine and scrutinize the resulted, recorded messages and their subsequent meanings. This humorous critique of the process, as well as the implications for viewing art, makes the project so much fun to participate in, and think about."

In addition to the artists' own presented works in the exhibition, Morris and Ayala will install a Telepathy Station, inviting gallery visitors to create their own telepathic drawings.

MICA's galleries, which are free and open to the public, are open Monday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. They are closed on major holidays.

For more information or to request high-resolution images, call 410-225-2300.

Photo caption: Black Magic (detail), from The Telepathy Drawings by Christina Ayala '00 and John Morris '01, pen and ink with Prismacolor and silver gelatin print, 2006.

 

Founded in 1826, MICA is among the top visual arts colleges in the nation. It enrolls 1,714 undergraduate and 218 graduate students from 48 states and 52 foreign countries, offering programs of study leading to the bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.), master of arts (M.A.), and master of fine arts (M.F.A.) degrees. It also offers post-baccalaureate certificate programs and a full slate of credit and noncredit courses for adults, college-bound students, and children. MICA is recognized as an important cultural resource for the Baltimore/Washington region, sponsoring many public and community-outreach programs-including more than 100 exhibitions by students, faculty, and nationally and internationally known artists annually-as well as artists' residencies, film series, lectures, readings, and performances.