On Thursday January 10th Chelsea and I visited the Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University for the opening of their newest exhibit, Echo Sounding. The artist in the largest space is Minnesota-based installation artist Liz Miller. Her works are created by cutting shapes and patterns out of large rolls of stiff felt, connecting them in various ways, and then installing them within a space in a way that viewers can move around the piece. All of her works have a story to tell. She explained in her opening lecture that she is drawn to the "beautiful yet sinister," using ornate and decorated antique guns as one of her primary shapes for most pieces and the order and chaos of militant subjects in how she arranges things within a space.
Staying true to her "beautiful yet sinister" stance, she created her ocean-themed piece for the museum based upon the unnecessary slaughter of thousands of dolphins in the waters near Japan. (She says to watch the movie "The Cove" to learn more.) She showed slides of the blue ocean with swirls of bright red, which look strangely beautiful until you recognize that this is the blood of these innocent animals.
Liz's huge piece in the museum space was of a large red wave making its way across the room, all of the pieces made of different types of marine animals and harpoons.
It really was wonderful to walk around and see the work after hearing about it from the artist herself. It was truly amazing. (Can you imagine cutting out all of those shapes!?)
