Lorrie Fredette: tender exchanges

Fredette’s tender exchanges stems from her intensive research into neural networks – particularly their structure and means of communicating information. Fascinated by how visible and invisible physiological networks transmit information, Fredette finds connections between neural networks and their resemblance to other systems in nature such as tree roots, vascular systems, and microbial and fungal communities. She explains, “Nerves join together at the spinal cord. Roots join at the trunk. The brain sends messages to the rest of our body via neurons. Trees send messages, as well as water and nutrients, from the roots to the crown and vice versa. The brain is extremely interconnected. Roots are extremely interconnected via the fungus network.”

This connection inspires Fredette’s sculptural forms, which include branch-like rods wrapped in gauze that hang from the ceiling at varying heights. Fredette’s site-specific installation reverses the micro and macro, as viewers seemingly shrink while negotiating their way through a space filled with large neuron-inspired structures. Fredette is not interested in forming exact representations of these neuron networks, but instead, aims to create a compelling and poetic experience. In doing so, Fredette’s immersive installation invites us to explore a new, fantastical world where the scientific, the imaginary, and the artistic combine.

Lorrie Fredette creates site-specific investigations that examine beauty, harmony and comfort to comprehend the incomprehensible aspects of infection, pandemic and plague. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including solo and group exhibitions in the U.S. and Europe. Exhibition venues include Art Miami, University of Tennessee, Mass MoCA, and Jyväskylä Art Museum in Jyväskylä, Finland. She is the recipient of awards that include MARK 09 and Strategic Opportunity Grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and has participated in residencies at the Constance Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts in Ithaca, New York, the Adolf and Virginia Dehn Visiting Artist Program at Loomis Chaffee in Windsor, Connecticut, and the Women’s Studio Workshop in Rosendale, New York. Fredette holds a BFA in sculpture from the Herron School of Art/Indiana University.

tender exchanges is an ICA Sandbox Project and is supported by a grant from the Applied Materials Foundation and Nicki and Pete Moffat.