Reconfigured
Collaboration by Becky Fehse and Jane Kelsey-Mapel
March 30 – September 8, 2013
Terminal 4, Level 2 Cases (Two)
Becky and Jane became friends while attending Arizona State University as students. After graduate school, they followed similar career paths of balancing their time between art, teaching and family. Both artists were looking for something new and fresh with their art making process. They decided to “put their heads together” and collaborate. Although they lived in different states, Becky in Washington and Jane in Arizona, they endeavored to work together via the internet and several trips to each other’s studios.
The goal of their collaboration was to challenge themselves and each other to produce work that questions conventional expectations of traditional fine art and craft materials. Becky being a painter and mixed media artist and Jane a figurative ceramic sculptor, they used art materials and techniques that were unfamiliar to them. They stepped out of their “comfort zone” to see what might happen in the creative process. Working together, the artists repurposed found objects with hand-crafted ceramic parts, to create a collection of new narrative sculptures that have been reconfigured.
Image Caption:
Becky Frehse and Jane Kelsey-Mapel, Third Act, (detail), 2012 - 2013, ceramic, wood, vintage doll body, mixed media, 19.75 x 9 x 7.5”
A Grand Ride: Photographs by Tom Brownold
Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
Terminal 4, Level 3, Center Wall South
June 16, 2012 – Ongoing
For more than one hundred years, mules have carried people and supplies up and down the steep trails of the Grand Canyon. These sure-footed creatures have been instrumental in the construction and maintenance of the South Rim water pipeline, the trail system, and Phantom Ranch. Instead of hiking it, visitors can still ride mules into the canyon just as the first tourists did in the 1800s. After descending through layers of rock that represent almost two billion years of the earth’s history the “dudes” astride mules reach Phantom Ranch, where they can finally dismount from their Grand Ride.
“I am always looking for interesting images...I thought that photographing the mules and the livery operation based on the South Rim would be a great means of getting to know about the mules, the guides and the support crew that make it work. After a year of twice-monthly trips to visit the historic mule barns, I have come away with a body of work that hints of the past and is of the present.”
Find out more about the exhibition from Tom Brownold during his radio interview on "Air Time with Phoenix Sky Harbor."
Image Caption:
Tom Brownold, Switchback, © 2009, photographic print
Photographic exhibition based on the book, The Grandest Ride by Tom Brownold, publish by Rio Nuevo with text by Brad Dimrock.
From Above
Photographs by Adriel Heisey
Through July 21, 2013
Terminal 4, Level 3 (8 display cases)
The human imprint on the landscape inspired a partnership between photographer Adriel Heisey and Archaeology Southwest. From a low-altitude aerial viewpoint,
Heisey captured images that reveal the relationship of past humans to the geological landscape. Beyond the artistic beauty, these images show how the terrain
and natural resources influenced where humans settled.
The first human footprints in the Americas were made roughly 500 generations ago. Most of the ruins left on the landscape result from small nomadic social groups
to large villages of 300 or more permanent residents. Their subtle as well as obvious traces in the American Southwest have been recorded by archaeologists for
more than a century. Such archaeological sites number almost a half-a-million.
Archaeology Southwest, a private non-profit organization based in Tucson, Arizona, explores and protects the places of our past across the American Southwest and
Mexican Northwest. Using “Preservation Archaeology” their conservation-based practices include: low-impact methods of site investigation; educational research
and projects; partnerships with communities and institutions.
This exhibition merges aesthetic beauty and a record of archaeological preservation that creates a source of wonder, knowledge and identity. Marks that humans
have left on the land tell the stories of past generations and are visible From Above.
Image Caption:
Adriel Heisey, Canyon with Great House, Moon and Pueblo Bonito, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, New Mexico, ©1994, photographic print, 65 x 55”
Artworks courtesy of Archaeology Southwest, Tucson, AZ
archaeologysouthwest.org
Read a statement from the artist.
Bolo Ties
Vintage and Contemporary Artistry
An Exhibit from the Heard Museum
Through June 28, 2013
Terminal 4, Level 3 (Gallery)
The bolo tie is the official state tie not only of Arizona but New Mexico and Texas as well. Bolo ties emerged in the early 1940s as the western man’s necktie.
They became popular with 1950s cowboy pop culture and continue to be embraced as the western dress code of today. Native American jewelers and silversmiths in
particular brought individuality and creativity to the art form.
This exhibition features more than 250 examples of bolo ties, vintage and contemporary, from the collections of both the Heard Museum and Norman L. Sandfield. Primarily
focused on Zuni, Hopi and Navajo artists and silversmiths, the bolos present a variety of styles, materials and designs.
Bolo ties are being made internationally from Mexico to more recent creations in England, Spain, Denmark and Japan. Although still strongly represented as an American
tradition, bolo ties are gaining popularity across the globe. From its humble beginnings with dude ranch tourists to the haute couture designers of New York, the bolo tie
is one item that has come, gone and come again into favor.
Image Caption:
Zuni Bolo Ties, silver, turquoise, left to right: Susie and Willis Leekity, 1970s-80s, 2 3/8” high; Shirley Bellison, 1970s-80s, 2” diam. and
Amy Quam 1980s-90s, 2 ¾”, Norman L. Sandfield Collection
