Rebecca Cummins

Professor Emeritus, DXARTS
Rebecca Cummins

Contact Information

ART 129

Biography

PhD, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia, 2003
MA, University of New Mexico, 1982
BFA, University of Northern Iowa, 1979

I explore the sculptural, experiential, and sometimes humorous possibilities of light and natural phenomena, often referencing the history of science and optics in installations that have included a machine for making rainbows, a photographic rifle, paranoid dinner-table devices, and a variety of sculptural and photographic approaches to marking time. Current investigations incorporate contemporary scientific and medical imaging.

Exhibitions include Hyper Design, 6th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China; Timeless — time, landscape and new media, Quay Art Gallery, Images Festival, Toronto; YOUNIVERSE, The Biennial of Seville, Seville, Spain; Interlude: 366, Zendai Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, China; Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland; The South Australia Biennale of Australian Art, Adelaide; Performance Space, Sydney; I Space, Chicago; and ILLUSION: Science Gallery, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

Commissions include the Skylight Aperture Sundial, 2006 (Seattle Public Library, Montlake Branch, and the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs) and Lunar Drift: Sun and Moon Pointers, 2014 (Washington State Art Commission and Western Washington University, with Paul DeMarinis, Stanford University). Additional works are installed at the Exploratorium: Museum of Science, Art and Perception, San Francisco. Ongoing commissions include the South Delridge (CSO) Artwork Project (Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs and the Seattle Public Utilities) and the University of Oregon Lewis Integrative Science Building in partnership with the Oregon Arts Commission.

I began teaching at the University of Washington in 2001, following 16 years at Sydney College of the Arts, University of  Sydney, Australia. My dissertation, “Necro-Techno: Examples from an Archeology of Media,” explored the history of media and contemporary artists who use archaic media devices in their artistic practice.

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