PAFA Morris Gallery Presents Fernando Orellana: His Study of Life

Installation includes an interactive drawing machine designed to
channel the ghost of Thomas Eakins via electromagnetic fields

August 20 - November 6, 2016
 
Opening reception: Wednesday, September 7, 6 - 8 p.m.

PHILADELPHIA (August 2, 2016) – The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is pleased to present Fernando Orellana: His Study of Life, on view from August 20 through November 6, a site-specific installation that features four robotic machines that will attempt to interact with the ghost of Thomas Eakins a century after his death.

Orellana took inspiration from PAFA’s long-standing tradition of working from the figure, and its wealth of Eakins’ archival materials, to create the installation for the museum’s Morris Gallery exhibition series.

His Study of Life is comprised of four robotic machines outfitted with electromagnetic field (EMF), temperature, and infrared (IR) monitors -- tools used by ghost hunters to detect paranormal activity -- as well as some of Eakins’ personal possessions from PAFA’s archives. When the monitors sense fluctuations in PAFA’s Morris Gallery, each robot will help Eakins’ ghost carry out a specific action.

The first robot will allow the ghost to open and inspect Eakins’ watercolor box, which includes the artist’s paints and brushes; the second will rotate a red armchair Eakins’ often used as a prop in his portraits; and the third will use a series of LED matrices to activate Eakins’ own painting palette and allow his ghost to select and mix his colors.

The fourth and most elaborate robot, Orellana explains, will allow Eakins to create ghostly drawings of either the photographs that he made when he was alive or new renderings made by his ghost’s direct navigation of the drawing robot.

“Given that Eakins’ primary subject was the human figure, the installation will include figure models who will pose for Eakins as they would have done more than 130 years ago in the very same building,” Orellana notes. “While standing in the installation, the figure models will cycle through various poses that Eakins captured in his photography, thereby creating a type of life drawing study for the dead.”

(No photography of the installation is permitted when the unclothed models are in the Morris Gallery.)

His Study of Life is the latest in Orellana’s recent series of interactive ghost machines, and the first involving a widely-known person. He has previously created work in which personal objects like bells, candlesticks, books, and childhood toys -- acquired from estate sales of the recently departed – would animate when triggered by the presence of their former owner.

“In his preparation for His Study of Life, Fernando Orellana talked to some PAFA staff members who’ve sensed strange phenomena in parts of the Historic Landmark Building, and that element adds yet another interesting layer to his installation,” says Jodi Throckmorton, PAFA’s Curator of Contemporary Art. “His work forces us to confront the difference between what we see and what we think we see. We’re excited to find out what happens when the installation is in place.”

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916), who taught and exhibited at PAFA in the late 1800s, is inextricably linked with its history and with groundbreaking artistic practices in 19th-century America. As influential as he was controversial, Eakins’ teaching ideas led to a much greater emphasis on the study of human anatomy, including students working from dissections of human cadavers and from the nude model, a practice that had not previously existed in American art schools. Eakins, who also attended PAFA as a student, was dismissed from the faculty in 1886 for what was seen as his over-emphasis on the use of the nude. However, working from the model and other Eakins-era innovations remain central to PAFA’s curriculum even a century after his death.

The upcoming exhibition Thomas Eakins: Photographer, honoring the centenary of Eakins' death and opening October 19, will present over 60 of his photographs, paintings, and sculpture exploring issues of representation, gender, and sexuality that are as relevant today as when they were made.

The Morris Gallery Program, established in 1978 to showcase the work of living Philadelphia-area artists, has shown work by many of the most influential artists of the time. Robert Ryman, Vik Muniz, Nan Goldin, Laylah Ali, Virgil Marti, Alyson Shotz, and Emil Lukas are among those who have exhibited in the Morris Gallery. 

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Founded in 1805, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is America's first school and museum of fine arts. A recipient of the 2005 National Medal of Arts, PAFA is a recognized leader in fine arts education with a world-class permanent collection of American art.