3/6/02

AU'S RURAL STUDIO WORK IN WHITNEY MUSEUM'S 2002 BIENNIAL

AUBURN -- Work by students and the late founder and director of Auburn University's Rural Studio will be part of the prestigious Whitney Museum of American Art 2002 Biennial Exhibition, which opens Thursday (March 7) in New York City.

The work by the late Samuel "Sambo" Mockbee and his students, which was selected by Whitney Museum curator Lawrence Rinder before Mockbee's death on Dec. 30, 2001, is the first time in the show's history that work by architects has been included.

Two other architects have work displayed in the show, but AU's School of Architecture is the only university work represented. It includes the work of 113 artists and collaborative teams.

"Larry Rinder came to the Rural Studio, saw the work, and wanted it included," said Andrew Freear, an assistant professor of architecture who coordinated AU's part of the exhibition. AU's part of the exhibition includes three projects -- the Community Center at Mason's Bend; the new backstop for the Newbern Baseball Club; and the Lucy House, which is still under construction.

The community center, sometimes called the "Glass Chapel" because of its construction of rammed earth and automobile windshields, is showcased through a model and series of photographs. It was constructed by students as a fifth-year thesis project.

The baseball backstop, also a fifth-year thesis project completed in 2001, is showcased with a model.

The Lucy House, being built by the Rural Studiošs Outreach Studio, is sponsored through a grant by Interface Carpets of LaGrange, Ga. The house is showcased by two drawings by Mockbee, a model and photographs. The stand for the model is constructed of carpet tiles, which is a sample of the walls built for the real house, Freear said.

In addition, a one-hour documentary on the Rural Studio by New York filmmaker Charles Schultz, is being shown as part of the exhibition. The documentary focuses on the issue of affordable housing for the poor and how the Rural Studio is changing the lives of AU architect students as well as the families who live in poverty-stricken areas of West Alabama.

The Rural Studio, co-founded in 1993 by Mockbee and D.K. Ruth, a professor of architecture who now oversees the program, brings students from AU's College of Architecture, Design and Construction to the Rural Studio's base in Newbern, a town about 160 miles from campus. Hale County is one of the poorest in the nation, with more than 1,400 substandard dwellings.

AU architecture students at the Rural Studio have built five new houses and several community projects including a farmer's market, children's center, a chapel, a bus stop and community center and an open-air pavilion. Students have also completed hundreds of smaller construction projects such as roof repairs and new stairs.

The Whitney's 2002 Biennial Exhibition, the largest Biennial since 1981, is the museum's signature survey of contemporary American art, and will run through May 26.

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Rinder, the Whitney's Anne & Joel Ehrenkranz Curator of Contemporary Art, developed the exhibition in collaboration with three colleagues. The curators traveled to 43 towns and cities in 27 states and to Puerto Rico to view works.

"The 2002 Biennial pays tribute to the spirit and variety of American artistic practice throughout the country," he says.

The 2002 Biennial is the 71st in the series of Annuals and Biennials inaugurated by Whitney Museum founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1932.

The Biennial, now regarded as the signature exhibition of the Whitney Museum, has evolved into the premier showcase for the most important recent work made by American artists, from the established to the unknown. Heralded for its artistic innovation and inevitable controversy, the Biennial epitomizes the Whitney's mission to foster the advancement of new American art.

The museum at 945 Madison Ave., in New York is the leading advocate of 20th and 21st-century American art. Founded in 1930, its holdings have grown to include nearly 13,000 works of art by more than 1,900 artists.

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mar02: AU-ruralstudio

CONTACT: Freear, 334/624-4483; or Mary Haus or Stephen Soba at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 212/570-3633.