The Mechanics Of Art

‘Ialu’ creator speaks Saturday at Crystal Bridges

Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is one of the museums Knoxville, Tenn., artist John Douglas Powers has been wanting to visit for a long time.

"Pretty awesome that the first time I get to visit a museum I've been wanting to go to is to see one of my own pieces in it," Powers says.

FAQ

Art Talk

With John Douglas Powers

WHEN — 1-2 p.m. Saturday

WHERE — Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville

COST — Free

INFO — crystalbridges.org

BONUS — The artist will also participate in the Light Night Party at 8 p.m. at the illuminated sculpture “Buckyball”

"Ialu" by Powers is part of the exhibit "State of the Art: Discovering American Art Now" at the museum in Bentonville. He will be discussing his art piece during a talk from 1 to 2 p.m. Saturday. "Ialu" is part of a series of pieces evoking the idea of tall grass moving in the wind, he says. The structure is a wooden mechanism that has tall vertical elements and sways in a way intended to look like wheat or grass. He describes the visual as kind of hypnotic, soothing and beautiful.

"As a little kid growing up in northern Indiana, that's what our backyard looked like with just acres and acres of grain," he says.

Powers also drew inspiration from ancient Egyptian mythology, which described the idea of paradise as a wheat field, he says.

There are different layers in the work for people to respond to, including clouds projected on the back side of the piece and a sound component coming from the machine. The sound is a squeaky groan that is atonal and a little discomforting, he says.

"I'm interested in the metaphor of like the beautiful thing and the suspicious creepy thing are both emanating from the same source," Powers says.

"Ialu,"which is about 5 feet by 9 feet, took about four months to create. The first piece in this series was about a year in the making, he says.

Along with discussing the ideas for the work, Powers plans to discuss the science, math and engineering aspects of "Ialu."

Powers also creates static objects and series of drawings using drawing mechanisms. The drawing machine is a shallow wooden box with a piece of paper in the bottom, and a mechanism pushes ink pens around to make a drawing, he says. Powers will give guests a chance to use these drawing machines later that night during the Light Night Party at the illuminated sculpture "Buckyball."

NAN What's Up on 09/19/2014

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