12x12: Christine Tarkowski

Local artist Christine Tarkowski is developing a new system of faith. She constructs a domelike meeting space for these beliefs at the next 12x12: New Artists/New Work opening October 6, 2006, at First Fridays, at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA), Chicago. Tarkowski’s project, Imitatio Dei or “Imitating God,” reflects her interest in American architect R. Buckminster Fuller’s geodesic dome designs and his nearreligious philosophies about architecture around the world. Raising questions of how the limitations of human nature compromise principles of faith, the installation includes not only the architectural elements of the faith but also text clarifying the ideals.

Recalling Fuller’s 1940s designs, the half dome edifice alludes to the formidable presence of geometric forms in religious iconography throughout history. Suggesting the stained glass of an ecclesiastical apse, a series of cast concrete triangles illuminated with embedded light bulbs and colored glass wrap the dome’s shell. The abstract surface patterns evoke sacred geometries ranging from the Pantheon ceiling to the golden mean.

Tarkowski received her BFA from the Parsons School of Design in New York and her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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First Fridays
12x12: Christine Tarkowski
AIRTHEMED