Tangencies
Benjamin Dearstyne Hoste
2021 MFA Thesis Exhibition
University of Arizona
Joseph Gross Gallery
April 17 – May 16
Virtual Exhibition
MoCA Tucson
May 8
Viewing Details
Biosphere 2
May 15 & 16
Viewing Details
Artist Statement
The mathematical concept of tangency—a perfect and smooth advancement, meeting, and retreat between two curves—provides a point of entry for the work and serves as a metaphor for our deeply shared experiences. Just as tangent circles meld together where they touch, becoming momentarily indistinguishable, so do we when we share intimate and powerful moments.
Tangencies fluidly moves between both shared and private space, utilizing public intervention and installation strategies. Situated in public parks and gathering areas, arrays of tangent circles are drawn with chalk, illustrating our connectedness as well as demarcating personal space. Each circle is slightly larger than six feet in diameter, ensuring that individuals standing within them can be safely distanced from one another. Members of the public are invited to activate the work through occupying tangent circles: distanced if need be or touching if desired. Ephemeral in nature, both the drawings and the momentarily shared experiences they elicit are photographically documented.
This documentation is accompanied by a nearly 14-foot-long and 8-foot-tall corridor in the installation of the work. With arced walls, that smoothly advance and nearly meet before retreating from one another, the corridor creates a natural bottleneck. Reminiscent of hallways commonly found in one’s home, the corridor functions both as a passageway as well as a space where memories reside. While one can often find a collection of framed family photographs in a domestic hallway, this corridor is filled with familial audio recordings—archived voicemails left by the artist’s mother and father—resurrected through the walls themselves, which vibrate and amplify the recorded voices. Nearly tangent, the corridor walls are spaced wide enough to pass through.
Confronting our inextricable linkages with one another, Tangencies reflects and reveals that which is integral to our human experience, our inescapable interconnectedness and its resulting influence on our lives.
Exhibition View, Joseph Gross Gallery
Tangent Array, No. 23
2021
Chalk circles / Archival pigment print
In situ / 32 x 40 in.
Tangent Moments, Nos. 1–60
2021
Two channel video (color, no sound)
1 min. each
Sound Corridor Formed by Arced Walls
2021
Voicemail messages, surface transducers, framing studs, plywood, paint
96 x 115 x 160 in.
Tangent Array, No. 23
2021
Chalk circles / Archival pigment print
In situ / 32 x 40 in.
Gallery Installation
Elements
Tangent Arrays
Using a custom, extra large compass, circles are drawn in chalk such that they are tangent to one or more neighboring circles, creating Tangent Arrays. Each array is organically generated in response to site parameters, and can contain as few as two circles or as many as the site will allow.
Tangent Moments
Members of the public are invited to activate the work by standing in pairs in tangent circles to create Tangent Moments. They are asked to stand facing each other for a full minute—either socially distanced by occupying the center of each circle or together at the tangent point—to silently reflect on the present moment and each other. If only a single participant is available, the artist can participant.
Sound Corridor
With arced walls representing circles of enormous size, the Sound Corridor both occupies and shapes space. The voicemail messages emanating from each wall fill this space, with the center of the corridor being the optimal listening point. As viewers pass through this narrow point their bodies can make contact with both walls, becoming an improvised tangent point between them.
100 Sites &
1,025 Circles
Tangent Arrays were placed across 100 distinct sites, with each ranging in scale from two to eighty-five circles. A total of 1,025 chalk circles were drawn.
Tangent Moments, Nos. 22, 26, 27, 35, 41, & 60
2021
Single channel video (no sound)
1 min. each
Tangent Arrays
Exhibition Spaces
Joseph Gross Gallery
1031 North Olive Road
Tucson, AZ 85721
galleries.art.arizona.edu
April 17 – May 16
Virtual Exhibition
MoCA Tucson
165 South Church Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85701
moca-tucson.org
May 8
Noon – 7 PM
Live Tangent Array Installation
Biosphere 2
32540 South Biosphere Road
Oracle, AZ 85739
biosphere2.org
May 15 & 16
9 AM – 4 PM
Live Tangent Array Installation
Artist Information
Benjamin Dearstyne Hoste (b. 1983) is an American artist whose work spans photography, video, sculpture, installation, and site based projects. His work is distinguished by its use of subtle figurative and temporal interventions that engage often unseen or overlooked forces. His work often probes commonly held assumptions, perceptions, or expectations as they relate the human experience.
He has received numerous awards and grants, most notably the Marcia Grand Centennial Sculpture Prize in 2020. His work has been exhibited internationally and is held in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. He holds an MFA in studio art from the University of Arizona, an MA in journalism from the University of Missouri, and studied mathematics and media studies as an undergraduate at the Claremont Colleges.
