Material musings

“My problem here is that I want to touch everything,” said Dilshanie Perera, ’07, at the July 9 opening reception for Material Science. Soda and pretzels accompanied the first exhibition of works by Hyde Park Art Center faculty in the center’s new building, where college students, residents, and featured artists snacked and surveyed the show. Perera was drawn to Darrell Roberts’s untitled painting; he created a mossy look by slathering bright green pumice over thick layers of paint.

Visitors trickled in from the oppressive heat to the cool and cavernous entry hall, where Holly Cahill talked about her inspirations. In her modular painting, Undoing Mountain Building, Cahill evoked the dips and undulations of mountains and rivers as if seen from an airplane window. Having moved from Kentucky to Chicago, she said she now looks at books on Montana for ideas, but also studies cracks in the sidewalk and the way ice freezes along Lake Michigan.

In the main hallway, Linda Cohn interrupted a chat with friends to discuss the creative process behind her collage series a Patriot acts, begun as an attempt to “express a concept of loss, disenchantment, and hope” with the war in Iraq. Inspired by the story of original American flag seamstress Betsy Ross, Cohn stitched red, white, and blue embroidery onto her collages. “Sewing,” says Cohn, “is a subtle way of screaming.”

The artwork in Material Science, open through July 23, spans genres from metalwork to installation, and the themes are just as broad. Other contributors include Sarah Kaiser, MFA’03, and Dawn Brennan, AB’80, MFA’02.

Jenny Fisher, ’07

HPAC Hallway_thumb.jpg Linda Cohn - And Crown Thy Good - 2004-2006_thumb.jpg Sarah Kaiser Alice_thumb.jpg

Photos (left to right): Viewers gather in the HPAC hallway; Linda Cohn, And Crown Thy Good, 2004-06; Sarah Kaiser, MFA'03, Alice, 2005.

July 14, 2006