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Art around the corner
Since Young Harris is located at the heart of Union and Towns counties in Georgia, and Clay and Cherokee counties in North Carolina (Hayesville is about eight miles from Young Harris), residents are just around the corner from an opportunity to enjoy the high calibre art venue at Young Harris College. The Division of Fine Arts is presenting a startlingly creative contemporary piece of artwork. It is called an "installation work." And - there is a science lesson involved in addition to purely enjoying the handblown glass, the medium for this display. The exhibit is also possible due to Arts & Assemblies and the Art Department at Young Harris College for sponsoring this year's Alice Hirt exhibition in conjunction with the artist lecture, which took place on February 15. Young Harris Art Professor Rusty Wallace is in charge of the exhibit and is extremely knowledgeable. He conducted a brief daylight tour, although he warned that the exhibit is best viewed after sunset due to its properties. I determined to return one night, because the work impressed - even while improperly viewed in the light of day. The colorfully stained, handblown glass C-60 molecule representations are liquidfilled and are bedded upon computer aided design carved styrofoam topographies, which are re-creations of photographs taken from the surface of the planet Mars. The liquid in the glass sculptures is a tracing dye that glows under black light (a light near soft ultraviolet light and having little visible light). At an evening viewing, the black lights and light flurry machines and silver backdrop will all contribute to enhance and fully affect the visual experience. The artist, Michael Oliveri, is Chair of Digital Media at The University of Georgia. Oliveri, who is a native of Huntington Beach, Calif., has a rich, diverse background in design, fabrication, art direction and teaching. During the past several years, Oliveri has created artwork stemming from his own research into recent scientific discoveries. One discovery Oliveri has researched is the assertion that the universe has a particular shape - that of a " d o d e c a h e d r o n . " Dodecahedron is defined as a solid figure having twelve faces in geometry and crystallography, according to Dictionary.com. As our science-in-art lesson continues, we further learn that this assertion was postulated in 2003 by Jean-Pierre Luminet and his colleagues in Paris, according to the hand-out given to exhibit attendees from Professor Wallace and the Fine Arts Department. Another discovery Oliveri researched for his art is that of the C-60, or the Carbon-60 molecule, discovered in 1985 by Professor Harold Kroto, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996. Three years later, the same Carbon-60 molecule was discovered in a meteorite that had fallen to earth, 30 years prior, in 1969, in Allende, Mex. This rather newly named molecule is the subject of Oliveri's work currently on display in The Gate Building. These are but two recent significant scientific discoveries that inform viewers within Oliveri's sculpture, photography, video and installation works. Oliveri has shown work dealing with these discoveries, and the questions they raise, most recently in Pittsburgh at Wood Street Galleries in 2006. Prior to the Pittsburgh exhibition, Oliveri exhibited related work in San Francisco, Miami, and Atlanta. If you are interested in more information on Michael Oliveri, you may consult Professor Rusty Wallace at 706.379.5144 or visit www. michaeloliveri.com or www.conceptrecycling.com Even though Professor Wallace graciously allowed an enjoyable day view of the exhibit, he reiterated that the public should "Please come after sunset for the full effect of the installation!"
The Fine Arts Division at Young Harris College is a pearl in the necklace of arts to be found around our Appalachia. And it is just around the corner.
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