Newswise — A little more than a year ago, the community of Lexington, Ky., was struck by the worst airline disaster in the city's history. A majority of the 49 victims lost on Comair Flight 5191 were natives to the Bluegrass, and the Commonwealth mourned for each and every life lost on that fateful day of Aug. 27, 2006. People are forever changed by such large tragedies, and not diminishing the gravity of such heartbreaking events, the human heart and soul can also be moved by smaller, individual acts of exploration and change. It is these life-altering experiences that are the focus of "UK Art Faculty Exhibition: The Greatest Use of Life is To Spend it For Something That Outlasts It" running through Dec. 23, at the University of Kentucky Art Museum.
UK Art Faculty Exhibition explores the lasting impression life events create, and how through their work artists are able to connect with museum visitors long after they view the work. The show, featuring work by 17 of the university's artist-faculty including a fiber sculpture memorial in honor of the victims of 5191, includes art in mediums like ceramics, furniture, new media, painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture.
Guest curator Carl Solway, owner of Cincinnati's Carl Solway Gallery, spent hours meeting with each of the artists in order to put together an exhibition that reflects profound themes of love, loss, life, and ultimately, survival. The exhibition's title "The Greatest Use of Life is To Spend it For Something That Outlasts It," a quote from philosopher William James, captures the depth of the works' messages.
The centerpiece of the exhibition, which has connected with many Kentuckians, is "MEMORIAL: 5191," a mixed media installation depicting artist Arturo Alonzo Sandoval's personal beliefs in life after death. The fiber sculpture, which measures 12 feet x 12 feet square at its base and ascends 23 feet high, features the images of all 49 Comair 5191 victims in the piece's main spiral design on a Hubble Telescope image of the Eagle Nebula. The spiral of victims' images starts in the center with the oldest person lost in the crash and ends with the youngest, a teenager from Kansas who loved riding horses and had traveled to Kentucky to look for a new horse.
While "MEMORIAL: 5191" is large focal point for the exhibition, the show's work is vast in scope.
A small sample of the range of work patrons will see includes avid traveler Dennis "Bones" Carpenter's photo collages from Morocco and Portugal that capture the romance associated with foreign travel. "People's Staircase," a piece by Hui Chi Lee constructed of Plexiglas and film, questions and examines society's quest to climb higher in levels of status and acquisition.
George Szekely showcases his personal experiences with his mother's illness through diaristic artist books he created at the time. Printmaking fans will be interested in seeing a series of eight woodcuts by beloved faculty member and Tamarind Master Printer Ross Zirkle, who recently lost his fight with cancer. Photographer Ruth Adams' work "unremarkable," an installation of 350 self-portrait Polaroid images chronicles a 13-month long period of treatment for Hodgkin's Lymphoma that the artist survived.
An accompanying publication of the UK Art Faculty Exhibition, showcasing the importance of the university setting in fostering new artists and allowing research and creative opportunities for professional artists, will be made available through the UK Art Museum.
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