March 16th - April 12th, 1990

Opening Reception: Fri, March 16: 7-9pm. 

Laurel Beckman's installation, Learning to Swim: An Illustrated Journey With Souvenirs, is about perceived and experienced Lesbian sexuality. The installation comprises two integrated components. The first element consists of a wall-mounted, continuous roll of vellum which incorporates tracings from a wide variety of reference texts (drafting manuals, nature photography, anatomy, physics, spirituality) along with personal ephemera. The metaphor of swimming (diving, immersion, vertigo, harmony, illusion), played out on the vellum, seeks to elucidate a kind of emotional journey.