Archived: Mar 05, 2007

> Arts & Entertainment

The hands-on approach to viewing art

Artist brings faith, salvaged pieces to her approach

By Miranda Agee

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Grossman hopes to find a middle ground between the many different perspectives Christians have on their faith.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union Art Gallery had another successful showcase with Meditations and Revelations. This dual showcase featured the works of William Prophet Blackmon and Lauren Grossman.

A Seattle native, Lauren Grossman, creates by focusing on passages from the Bible and turning that inspiration into an interactive art piece. Her work not only represents her faith as a Christian but also how others view their faith.

Grossmans pieces have been described as fluid and associative. Her sculptures are pure elegance within their distractions.

Grossman invites the audience to not only view but also to help create. Through this, Grossman hopes to find a middle ground between the many different perspectives Christians have on their faith.

Grossman likes to use materials that are natural and salvaged, such as pieces found laying around at a junk yard. Viewers can expect to encounter mediums such as lumpy and aged clay, often yellowed and encrusted with insects.

Many of the machinery items that Grossman uses are found at a junk yard as industrial scrap metal. She then takes this and molds it into a beautiful masterpiece all while still keeping its natural form of what the scrap metal once was.

With these pieces, Grossman wants the viewer to complete their observation and have them think about what she is portraying two-dimensionally instead of one single thought. This two-dimensional way of thought can be perfectly described in Wife created in 2005.

The torso of a woman is molded with ductile iron, stainless steel and chromed brass. These materials portray females as strong, confident and yet still gentle and exposed to the world.

The woman has plastic levers that jut out from the middle of her torso which is the do it yourself part of her creation. The spectator turns the levers clockwise to reveal the grinding sensation and the salt that is released from the bottom of her steel torso. Grossman calls the releasing of the salt, an eventual pillar, giving rise to the art, history and power of women.

With Scapegoat Variations created in 2002, Grossman sculpted the body of a goat giving its legs the pillar and wheels that the body rests on. Surrounding the body of the goat are brass tubes that are filled with propane gas that is supplied by the turquoise tank that lies besides the wheels of the goat. The flames are adjustable and when exposed to fire will light up. The work almost resembles a modern candelabra but Grossman had a more complex biblical representation of her piece.

The UWM Art Gallery exhibits works that surround many cultures that are local, national and international. The gallery credits itself as a space to showcase diverse and contemporary art.

The next exhibit that will be featured in the UWM Art Gallery will be Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, which showcases works that are used to teach children about the beauty of the female through dolls, paintings, poetry readings and nursery rhymes. The exhibit will be with the gallery from March 2 to April 5.

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