The second season of Project Atrium in the Haskell Atrium Gallery at the Museum of Contemporary Art opens to the public Saturday.
Philadelphia-based sculptor Tristin Lowe will be showing his textile sculpture “Lunacy,” a felt-covered sphere more than 12 feet in diameter reminiscent of the moon, along with a pair of neon sculptures.
Lowe received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Massachusetts College of Art and studied at Parsons School of Design and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
He has exhibited at the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City, the Museum of Art at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, New Langton Arts in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva, Switzerland.
The inflatable sphere is covered with 14 sections of felt, sewn together and then handworked to approximate the surface of the moon.
The debut of the installation is timed to coincide with the 43rd anniversary of America landing the first men on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Lowe said he was only 3 years old on that date, but has been inspired by spaceflight and the wonder of the heavens.
“The moon is very primeval. It’s the harbinger of night time and the dream state,” he said.
Joining “Lunacy” and illuminating the space is a pair of neon sculptures depicting comets, “Grace” and “Nature.”
Lowe said his trademarks are humor and absurdity, and the differences in the materials used in the installation appealed to him.
“The felt allowed me to quiet things down because it absorbs energy and sound. The neon is pure glass being electrified,” he said.
Lowe said he was inspired to include the comets in the installation based on beliefs by some scientists about the origin of life on Earth.
“There’s a theory that life might not have evolved without the tides caused by the moon and another theory that comets, like sperm, could have delivered the amino acids,” Lowe said.
In conjunction with the opening of the exhibit, Lowe will present a lecture at 2 p.m. Saturday about his process, his career and the Project Atrium installation.
For more details and museum membership information, visit mocajacksonville.org.
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