Visual Artist to Direct Inflatable Sculpture Project with Students, Faculty
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Michelle Tooker, Public Relations
610-359-5276
(Delaware and Chester Counties, PA)—Visual Artist Anna Hepler, who is renowned for her inflatable sculptures, will direct a collaborative workshop at Delaware County Community College later this month. Working in groups, art students and faculty will design, create and install large, inflatable sculptures around the Marple Campus. All of the works will be on view from Friday, September 28 to Monday, November 5, 2012. As a kick-off to the display, Hepler will give an artist’s lecture on her work and process on Thursday, September 27, 2012, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the College’s Small Auditorium, Room 2246 (901 S. Media Line Road, Media, PA). The event is free and open to the public.
“During the past few years I have been making plastic, inflatable sculptures that slowly deflate and flatten. With these forms I observe transitions between two- and three-dimensional states, revel in both, and achieve neither,” says Hepler. “I am intrigued by the convergence of opposites evident in this work and the restlessness of the finished objects.”
In the days leading up to the exhibit, Hepler will arrive on campus and assess the school grounds in search of possible spaces to install forms. Next, she’ll direct groups of students and faculty as they use colored packing tape, various types of plastic sheeting and forced air to create an assortment of sculptures. “It’s about choosing a material, imagining a form, thinking about structure, thinking about strength, and then thinking about how it can materialize in a certain place,” she says.
Not only will this project give students a better understanding of 3-dimensional art, but it will also involve the entire campus community. “When walking throughout campus, students, faculty, and the community can expect abstract visual interruptions of public space that will surely engage the viewer,” says Jaime Treadwell, Assistant Professor of Art. “In addition, our participating art students will learn much about assembling materials, formal aesthetics, installation art and public art.”
This project was made possible thanks to a mini-grant awarded to Treadwell by the Delaware County Community College Educational Foundation. For more information about this event, contact Treadwell at 610-325-2802.
About the Artist
A former professor at Bowdoin College, Hepler is a prominent artist who has exhibited extensively throughout the United States and abroad. Her work is included in several public collections, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Tate Gallery in London; DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Mass.; the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.; the Portland Museum of Art in Maine; and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art in Roswell, N.M. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College. To learn more about her and her work, visit: www.annahepler.com.
# # #
