Calendar of Events

Free and Open to the Public
Location: Sarratt Student Center Gallery (Google map of this location)

The Vanderbilt Sarratt Student Center's newly renovated Connector Space features the work of Nashville artist and Vanderbilt Curb Creative Campus grant recipient Lori Anne Parker-Danley in an exhibition entitled The Identity Sculptures Project from March 16 to June 15, 2013.

The Identity Sculptures Project, a multimedia installation composed of 11 sculptures and sculptural assemblages created in response to 11 writers from the Vanderbilt University community, is a 2012–2013 Curb Creative Campus Initiative. In this unique exhibition, Parker-Danley also uses QR code technology to transform the typical art-viewing experience into one that includes an audio and web-based component and effectively disrupts the boundaries between visual art, writing, and spoken word.

A public reception in celebration of the project will be held on-site on Thursday, April 11, 5–7 p.m.

After closing at the Sarratt Center in June, the exhibition will “travel” across campus to the Stevenson Science and Engineering Library, where it will then be on view through September 15.

Led by Parker-Danley (who is also an editor in the Patient Education Department at Vanderbilt University Medical Center), The Identity Sculptures Project is a collaborative public art and grant project that was born out of Parker-Danley’s interest in the relationship between writing and art and the ways language and storytelling shape (and are shaped by) our bodies and identities. During the initial stage of the project, Parker-Danley solicited writing from Vanderbilt faculty, students, and staff on the topic of “creative identities.” She then created sculptures and sculptural assemblages in response to and engagement with the writings and the writers.

One of the goals of the project is to create occasions for unexpected and spontaneous encounters and conversations (with art, writing, and amongst community members) on the Vanderbilt campus. This goal aligns with the Curb Creative Campus’s support of projects that break through the daily experiences to heighten engagement, stimulate curiosity, and provoke dialogue. To that end, the works will be on display in high-traffic, very public areas on campus. In a unique twist that takes advantage of contemporary technology, the sculptures are themselves interactive: Each sculpture will have a QR code paired with it.

The QR codes connect to the web-based exhibition pages, which include images, audio files, and written texts. Viewers will be invited to scan the QR codes and “listen” to the artworks—in the form of the voices of the writers reading their own words.