10.28.05 - Exhibit of Machias Bay petroglyph photos to open at UMM Art Gallery

The deepest recesses of Downeast Maine’s history – a series of prehistoric images pecked into shale ledges around Machias Bay - will be explored through an extraordinary exhibit of photographs entitled “Lapasuwok,” opening Friday, Nov. 4, at the University of Maine at Machias Art Galleries in Powers Hall.

The exhibit is the fourth program in the acclaimed 2005-06 UMM Libra Series, “Chance, Choice, Change: The Significance of Community.”

Lapasuwok, which in the Passmaquoddy language means “They Walk Thus,” is a stunning collection of images of petroglyphs captured through the camera lens of David Gustafson, a commercial and architectural photographer from Guadalupe, Calif. The photographer will be on hand at a public reception from 5 to 7 p.m. on opening day in the UMM Art Galleries.

The exhibition will run through December 17.

Mike Kimball, assistant professor of anthropology and sociology at UMM, describes the exhibit as part of a continuing effort to draw attention to a remarkable facet of the heritage and cultural identity of Maine’s Wabanaki peoples.

“The petroglyphs are eroding away from wind, water, and the passage of time,” said Kimball. “While they are still here, we want to record and honor them – not only as reminders of the past, but also participants in people’s lives right now.”

To that end, the University of Maine at Machias is also establishing the Machias Bay Petroglyph Room (Room 40 in Kimball Hall), where materials collected over several years of study, along with books and articles will be kept. Earlier surface prints by Mark Hedden, an archeologist with the Maine State Museum, will be among the documents available for future viewing and research.

An opening event is being planned for the Machias Bay Petroglyph Room later this year, Kimball said.
Gustafson, who is pursuing his master’s degree at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., specializes in architectural and product photography. While at the institute, Gustafson has focused on fine art photography and endeavors to show the relationship between human-made work and its place in the natural environment.

It is Gustafson’s judgment that the petroglyph project fits perfectly with that theme because the depictions on the rocks of Machias Bay are human-made images “pecked” with rhyolite into the region’s natural environment. Now, he knows, the environment, through processes of weathering and erosion, is taking them back.

Gustafson and others wonder what the petroglyphs mean. What was the original artist trying to say or show? The true meaning of these images will always remain a mystery, he concedes in a brief biography prepared for the media.

“I want viewers to question what [each] image means. Is that a squatting shaman or a woman giving birth? The possibilities are endless. It’s impossible for us to go back and question the artist as he or she was creating these images. We can only guess. I really wanted to stress this idea of mystery or uncertainty,” stated Gustafson.

The Lapasuwok exhibit will have two distinct parts, according to both Kimball and Bernie Vinzani, associate professor of art and curator of the UMM Art Galleries.

The first is a series of portraits focusing on individual petroglyphs from different eras in history. The second sets forth a “photo-document” in sections that show panoramic coverage of a rock ledge featuring petroglyphs. One of the sections alone is six feet long and approximately 40 inches high. The gallery exhibit is assembled in a way to draw viewers closer and provide them with an entry to the Machias Bay petroglyphs, Kimball said.

The exhibit also will be accompanied by an audio component. Upon arriving at the UMM Art Galleries, the viewer-listener will have a choice of five different “sound tracks” that can be listened to while viewing the photographs. The tracks are designed to enhance the viewers’ experiences while seeing the petroglyph images. Another option, of course, is silence.

The five options that will be available on a headset and CD player, which will be provided during the visit to the gallery, are canoe sounds, Passamaquoddy flute music, a Passamaquoddy song, a cello suite, and a Renaissance piece by Allegri.

The design of the gallery exhibit was completed by Vinzani with assistance from the senior students in UMM’s Interdisciplinary Fine Arts program.

Kimball remembered expeditions with Gustafson to petroglyph sites as particularly fruitful ones that involved meticulous work in order to show each symbol in the best possible light. The professor observed that Gustafson’s work was extraordinary, in that even meandering “pecking marks” tapped into the rock by the carvers were visible in the final photographic images.

The petroglyphs of Machias Bay have been a focus of summer session courses of study at UMM led by Kimball and Vinzani for several years.

Kimball said the Gustafson exhibit would be available for other locations once it has finished its “run” at the University of Maine at Machias. It is already scheduled to appear June 30, 2006, at the Downeast Heritage Museum in Calais, Maine, where it will stay until the end of August. Other venues are being explored.

The goal of UMM’s 2005-06 Libra Series is to explore what community means in Downeast Maine, and how different communities—past and present—shape Down-Easters today. The series is funded through a gift to the University of Maine System from Maine philanthropist Elizabeth B. Noyce. The Noyce award, presented on each of the seven campuses, is designed to recognize an academic program of excellence that has made a major contribution in advancing the mission of that institution, to reward a program that has special strength, or to attract or reward exemplary faculty.

This year’s UMM Libra program was designed by Lois-Ann Kuntz, assistant professor of psychology, with assistance from Lisa Athearn, adjunct faculty member at UMM, and Kimball. All three are serving as co-coordinators of the yearlong series.

For information about Lapasuwok, please call Vinzani at 255-1279 or Kimball at 255-1428