Lawndale Art Center is a non-profit alternative space for the exhibition of contemporary works in all media, unique in its focus on Houston area artists. Housed in an Art Deco building in Midtown, Lawndale has 4 galleries and annually hosts 20 exhibitions, informal talks and special events.Opening reception tonight, December 2, 2009 from 6–8pm in Room #317 for: Hypnopomp | Britt Ragsdale, University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts Studio Residency. Exhibition is on view from December 2–19, 2009.
Lawndale Art Center and the University of Houston Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts present Hypnopomp, a installation by Mitchell Center alumna Britt Ragsdale. Through sculptural objects and audio components, Britt Ragsdale explores the combination of hypnopomp and sleep paralysis. Hypnopomp is the scientific term referring to the cognitive state leading out of sleep. It is considered much more emotional and credulous in comparison to the experience of dreaming in hypnagogia, or the cognitive state of entering sleep.
Commonly combined with sleep paralysis, when the brain suddenly awakens from sleep while the muscles are still paralyzed by REM atonia, hynopompic hallucinations merge with normal vision to create an experience that many people have equated to supernatural encounters.
Along with Britt Ragsdale's art work there will be a performance at 7pm in the O'Quinn Gallery by Chin Xaou Ti Won, a Houston-based synth-pop / contemporary classical duo, comprised of Marcus Cone and St-Michel. The music draws heavily from 80's New Wave, Anime-Pop / Video Game Music and 20th Century Minimalism - all belted out on a stack of synths, electronics and walls of percussion. Often dubbed by critics as "film music", Chin Xaou Ti Won's music is built strongly around melodies, ranging from the simplistic, yet catchy, to the lush and contemplative.
