Art Faculty Mixes Media, Message

GAMBIER, Ohio (April 21, 2008) The visual arts faculty at Kenyon College shares the creative work that distinguishes them by content and medium in an exhibition at the Olin Art Gallery on April 24 through June 1.

An audio and video installation, painted wood and inkjet prints are among the media presented by seven faculty members.

A catered, opening reception will be held at 7:00 p.m., April 24, in the gallery in the lower level of the Olin Library.

These are the artists and descriptions of their work:

Claudia Esslinger, professor of studio art, created "Stereopsis," a two-channel audio and video sculpture with sets of eyeglasses and cameras. The viewer is immersed "in a newly considered reality that investigates the relationship of the natural world and our technological infrastructure," Esslinger said.

Barry Gunderson, professor of studio art, created "A Second Look at Versailles," a series of wall sculptures of painted wood and polyurethane that blend interpretations of the gardens at Versailles and the gardens of English manor houses. "Garden design … has yielded rich opportunities to explore these landscapes sculpturally," he said.

Marcella Hackbardt, assistant professor of studio art, created "Transplant," a series of digital chromogenic prints that portray the transformation of a woman into plant life. "The female figure's transmutation of skin into bark, feet into roots, and arms into branches suggests the intense psychological repercussions of life transitions," Hackbardt said.

Craig Hill, visiting assistant professor of art, created "Nostalgic Temptations," a series of acrylic and resin paintings on canvas that describe children's fantasy images as conveyed by television and mass-media marketing. "I address the temptations that face us from our collective childhood to the overworked, overstressed, over-stimulated existence of the modern urban dweller," Hill said.

Ted Rice, visiting instructor of art, created "Liminal Landscapes," inkjet prints that are impressions of the Knox County-area landscape. "Because I felt my attraction to the scenes was idiosyncratic, I approached the landscapes with the idea of pushing them a bit beyond what was actually in front of me, beyond how I had previously thought of landscapes," he said.

Ellen Sheffield, visiting instructor of art, created "Trace Studies," a series of sculptures in wheat paste, spackling compound and dye ink that represent the pages of open books threatened by the tide of electronic reading devices. "The fossilized bones of open books -- double leaves fixed in time and nearly picked clean -- might be thought to memorialize the loss of the complex, intimate relationship of the reader to the book," she said.

Karen Snouffer, associate professor of studio art, created "My Chaos is Your Chaos," drifting anthropomorphic forms in an installation drawn in ink on the gallery wall and on paper. "I consider my work a means of channeling the endless psycho-stimuli that assault our sense of order, the abyss of disharmony that brings about a universe of chaos," Snouffer said.

This exhibition is free and open to the public. Gallery hours are 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.