Thursday, June 25, 2009
Exhibit pushes boundaries
Artists were asked to take a risk and define "on the edge" for a show at the Jacksonville Center.
Matt Gentry | The Roanoke Times
Artist Ernest Bryant submitted "A Foot Bowl for Toefu" — a wooden bowl with a carved foot on top — to the "On the Edge" gallery in the Jacksonville Center for the Arts.
Want to go?
“On the Edge,” a collection of work from area artists defining what “on the edge” means to them- When: Through July 12, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
- Where: The Jacksonville Center, 220 Parkway Lane S., Floyd
- Cost: Free
- Contact: 745-2784, jacksonvillecenter.org
FLOYD -- What's edgy?
An exhibit at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd has about 50 answers from about 20 artists.
An exhibit called "On the Edge," which runs through July 12, asked artists to "push the boundary, take a risk and define 'on the edge,' " according to the center's Web site.
The artists were given only the title of the exhibit, said Moss Baldwin, a member of the exhibit committee.
"We wanted the artist to define the work," Baldwin said.
For some artists, "On the Edge" meant something that was out of their usual styles. For others, it was a piece that pushed conventional boundaries, such as Ernest Bryant's "A Foot Bowl for Toefu" -- a wooden bowl with a carved foot on top.
Baldwin, a photographer, also has three pieces in the show.
Two of the pieces, "Broomstraw I" and "Broomstraw II," were close-ups of the bristles of a broom. They were edgy for Baldwin not in terms of content, but because they were far away from her normal outdoor and landscape photos.
The third, "Ship Rails," had Baldwin literally over the edge of a ship, taking the photo looking downward.
A dragon sculpture, made of found objects such as her mother-in-law's old curlers, was different for artist and Jacksonville development coordinator Lee Chichester.
"I've never done that kind of sculpture before," Chichester said.
Chichester's art of choice is writing, but she wanted to try something different and came up with the sculpture, which incorporates wire and paper as well.
The idea for the Jacksonville Center's six yearly shows, including "On the Edge" comes from the exhibit committee.
"We try to make it a balance of media and themes," Baldwin said.
The shows are not usually juried and most work submitted is accepted, she said. The committee is discussing having more juried shows in the future, she said.
The center's next show, starting July 24, is the seventh annual "New Works" exhibit, in which artists show works that are new to the Hayloft Gallery. Applications for "New Works" will be accepted through July 3.
