Many people need to keep items for posterity and knowledge. Holding on to personal records or collecting items reflects our interests and presents historic evidence for our families. On Friday, Aug. 3, from 5:30 to 8 p.m., The Sun Valley Center for the Arts will unveil its latest project, "What We Keep: An exhibition on Books and Memory," to explore the human urge to record and collect.
This unique exhibition is a collection of books and paintings inspired by the intrinsic nature of humanity to collect. The Center will feature oil paintings by Xiaoze Xie, photographs by Nina Katchadourian and an installation by Michele Oka Doner who will attend for the opening during Gallery Walk and give an artist's walk-though at 6 p.m.
"I love the concept of this," Doner said. "It is a very conceptual piece that Kristin Poole has curated. She took a very transcendental route to my work and did not focus on the traditional categories of public art."
Doner is an internationally known artist and designer who has spent more than four decades creating a multitude of work from grand public art projects to sculpture, furniture and jewelry. She has created large-scale works for New York City's Herald Square Subway station and the Miami International Airport. Doner's work is derived from her constant study and appreciation of the natural world and its organic creations.
"I don't consider myself a collector," Doner said. "I consider myself a curator. I am a very natural hunter-gatherer, and I am constantly in that process. I have pictures of myself at preschool where I am running around to show things to people. My hands were always filled over and over again."
Doner said Poole visited her Miami home, and Poole was inspired when she saw the way Doner's library was arranged with small shapes and the textures of the books.
"I love the way bees make great honey," Doner said. "They don't stay in one meadow. They go to lots of meadows. We have to be able to travel from our space and absorb and respond to the dialogue of others to be a really effective member of the buzzing."
Doner likes to use metaphors to describe the processes and ideas behind art. She said that any great works of art are communal. She said she looks forward to seeing what has been arranged with other artists in the exhibition.
"I don't think art is personal," Doner said. "It is to share. What is the point of doing it if it's all in the dialogue?"
For more details, call The Center at 726-9491 or visit sunvalleycenter.org.
The Magnificent and Enchanting Etymology of the Peninsula State (Botany, Biology, Geology, History, Poetry and Fiction) started in 1990 by Michele Oka Doner. Organic and found materials courtesy of the artist at The Sun Valley Center for the Arts in Ketchum.
