Unusual Spellings, Region 6
Lori Fredette, "Unusual Spellings"
My installations are inspired by medical and environmental news stories pulled from today’s headlines and historical sources. Upon choosing an area of focus, such as the swine, avian and Spanish flus, or the increased incidence of poison ivy with the growth of greenhouse gases, I set upon a rigorous course of research, gathering images which I then alter, vet and reject through an elaborate system designed to completely subvert and distort any likeness to the original source.
Unusual Spellings, Region 6, is inspired by the recent inferred pandemic of H1N1. The season 2009 – 2010 statistical data of the outpatient visits to healthcare providers from the Departments of Health in Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana as well as the Center for Disease Control’s records are loosely reflected in this installation. Using small globular forms interconnected with a thin white linear element, a type of “three-dimensional chart” is suspended within a defined space.
This presentation is my version of how the pandemic may be visually explained. It is just one way of seeing, not of the gathered facts and statistics, but of their complete alteration.
Biography
Lorrie Fredette, a graduate of the Herron School of Art/Indiana University with a BFA in Sculpture, lives and works in New York’s Hudson Valley region. She is a 2010 recipient of an artistic residency at Women’s Studio Workshop. Her most recent solo show was at The Gallery at R&F, Kingston, NY. Recent three-person exhibitions include “Extracting (in) formation” at Gallery Ehva, Provincetown, MA, “The Importance of Not Seeing Clearly” at CAP ArtSpace, Ithaca, NY and “Shades of White” at Surprenant Art & Design, Kingston, NY. Fredette was honored with a New York Foundation for the Arts SOS Grant in 2007 and 2010. Public collections include Jyväskylän Taidemuseo in Jyväskylä, Finland and The Gift Project in New York, NY.
