Thalassa Raasch

Portfolio

[thalassagraasch]

In this project in progress I invite strangers to feel my face. This performance is then documented through photographs and video. These events are still unfolding and initial installation shots will be coming soon.

[thalassagraasch]

Obscura, 2010

Acrylic, 1986 home video tape, wall with shelf

Installation dimensions variable

The central work of my thesis exhibition, this piece alters during display.  Laying bare the simple mechanism of a camera obscura, this painted (chartreuse) home video--recorded by my father during my first year of life--sit on an exposed shelf and slowly melts under bright lights.  This process is amplified by the five-foot long projected image (by virtue of the mechanism, flipped) of the VHS tape. Over the course of a few weeks, the distortion of this personal artifact is slowly witnessed and amplified in the curtained viewing room.

These exhibition views show the object, the installation of the camera obscura room, the projected image.

[thalassagraasch]

Comète, 2010                       

 3.7 x 4.9 m video projection, father's video monitor, b&w/sound, looped

Installation dimensions variable  

This piece, from my thesis series, centers around my great-grandmother's recorded account (in french) of having seen Haley's comet as a little girl, which plays in the gallery space. NASA and other found footage are projected onto a wall. On the floor, my father's video monitor scrolls through various subtle translations of her text, it's cord coiling into a plug on the floor.

[thalassagraasch]

Cover illustrations for Harvard poetry magazine The Gamut.  

And, just for fun, Amyciaea lineatipes. 

2008-present.

[thalassagraasch]

Monks on the monastery rampart sound dungchens before the Stok winter festival.  2011

[thalassagraasch]

Photo from The Rake's Progress, sampling set-design, 2010.

(photo credit: L.Mckinnon)

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Installation stills from Watchers, 2009.

Three channel video projection, 14 minute loop.  Installation shots show large-scale display, each frame is about five feet across.

—Stay tuned, a video simulation of this installation will be uploaded soon—

[thalassagraasch]

An experimental documentary, 2008.

Chosen for exhibition in President Faust's Office in Massachusetts Hall, Harvard University.

[thalassagraasch]

Chained to Nature:

Portrait of a Minnesota Beekeeper, 

2007, Video, 12 minutes.

[thalassagraasch]

Stills from Chained to Nature: Portrait of a Minnesota Beekeeper, 2007.

See the following post for the full video or see if here.

[thalassagraasch]

Sampling of hand-built architecture models, 2007.  

[thalassagraasch]

Exhibitions and Honors

2014. Red Eye Gallery, Providence, RI. 

2013. Grant from The Garden Hill Fund, Vershire, VT.

2013. Grant from the Rebel Blend Fund, Portland, ME.

2013. Engine Art Space, Biddeford, ME. "Warp + Weft"

2013. Frontier Gallery, Brunswick, ME. "Tinder"

2013. Multimedia published on Freerange Nonfiction, New York City, NY

2013. Chosen for “It’s a Thin Line Between Love and Hate,” United Photo Industries, Brooklyn, NY

2013. Photograph published in August 7th Portland Press Herald, Portland, ME  

2013. Work in Photoville, ME, Salt Institute for Documentary Studies, Portland, ME

2013. Work in Photoville, NYC, United Photo Industries, Brooklyn, NY

2012. Photograph selected to promote Tinder / Salt Institute, Portland, ME

2012. Multimedia piece selected to close Tinder’s opening / Salt Institute, Portland, ME

2010. Edward Eager Memorial Prize for best creative writing / Harvard College, Cambridge, MA

2010. Selected to design audio-visual display for Arts Medal ceremony honoring John Ashbery

2010. Thesis exhibition / Carpenter Center, Harvard College

2009. Awarded Harvard College Research Program Grant / Cambridge, MA

2008. Video selected for display in President’s Office / Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

2008. Elected to Harvard Signet Society for intellectual and artistic achievement / Cambridge, MA

[thalassagraasch]

About

Thalassa currently resides in Portland, ME, and Providence, RI where she is earning an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design.

[email protected]