As part of Murphy Art District’s educational outreach program, Scottish-born artist Claire Ashley is scheduled for a trip to Magnolia Arts Thursday to work with Southern Arkansas University art students in a one-day installation workshop. The event will be a preview of an art display called AstroZone: An An Interactive Arts Exhibition that will on display Feb. 1 through April 4 at El Dorado’s Murphy Arts District First Financial Music Hall.
The exhibit is described as a family friendly, interactive, multi-media installation by Ashley that features immense inflatable pieces in different shapes and colors suspended from the ceiling as well as floor level placements.
"This site specific, immersive installation of painted inflatable sculptures, complemented with audio and lighting experiences, draws upon the artist's futuristic visions of extra-terrestrial life forms and alien landscapes," said the Murphy Arts District in its description of the exhibit. "Ashley's imagination is influenced by a myriad of sources that helped shape this exhibition, including luminescent organisms, Aurora Borealis, asteroids, dinosaur eggs, fossils, tropical foliage, space suits, the primordial ooze, and the story of the Garden of Eden."
More information can be found about the display here: www.eldomad.com/astrozone.
The public is invited to Magnolia Arts Thursday to watch how the artist will turn inflatable materials into works of art. The event begins at 4 p.m. and lasts until Ashley and the students finish. If one is unable to make the Thursday process, the installation will be up until Jan. 31 in Magnolia.
The actual exhibit will be open in El Dorado Feb. 1-April 4.
"Claire Ashley’s work investigates inflatable as painting, sculpture, installation and performance costume," said a Wednesday news release from Magnolia Arts. "These works have been exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries, museums, and site-specific installations, performances and collaborations."
Originally from Edinburg, Scotland, Ashley is now Chicago based and teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Department of Contemporary Practices, and the Department of painting and Drawing.
The AstroZone exhibit is the first art exhibition at MAD in what is hoped to be a continuing relationship with Bentonville’s Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, with more collaborations in the future. The partnership is the first time Crystal Bridges has curated an off-site exhibition with a partner organization.
“Within MAD’s educational systems, the arts interact with students at every level of learning and with all subject matter. Students gain greater flexibility and adaptability in thinking and developing skills of leadership, decision making, planning, strategy and reflection,” said the press statement.