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Sensory explosion: New Mexico Arts Imaginative Collective showcases art visitors can touch, hear, smell
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A news story about a colorblind student inspired a New Mexico arts collective to create a show viewers can touch, hear and even smell.
The New Mexico Arts Imaginative Collective is exhibiting 鈥淒oorways to Imaginations: A Multisensory Approach to Art鈥� at the Orpheum Community Hub from Friday, Oct. 4, through Nov. 1.
鈥淲e have every sense but taste, so we鈥檙e going to ask them not to taste the art,鈥� said project coordinator Karen Cunningham with a laugh.
Sensory explosion: New Mexico Arts Imaginative Collective showcases art visitors can touch, hear, smell
An eclectic mix of sculpture, photography, film and textiles, the show offers an immersive experience of the senses. Giant puppets, live music and film visuals from Albuquerque Drum Jam and the OffCenter Community Arts Project will embellish the opening and closing events.
First, the group called for entrants to create art involving at least two senses.
鈥淗ands On鈥� by Cunningham and Bill Beck resembles a giant set of pipes.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a sculpture of pan pipes,鈥� said Cunningham, a former piano teacher, composer and filmmaker. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a keyboard hidden inside. You wave your hand over the bamboo pipes and it makes a pipe sound.
鈥淲e just cut (the bamboo) in incremental sizes,鈥� she continued. 鈥淚 made the hands from tin. It鈥檚 done chromatically.鈥�
Anne Cole鈥檚 sculpture 鈥淭he Last American鈥� is based on her original fable about a Native horseman searching for the survivors of a devastating volcano. The materials consist of the leftover marble from the Washington Monument, Cunningham said.
Sculptor Nova DeNise created 鈥淒eer Woman,鈥� the protector of women and children. The artwork is a relief sculpture of recycled materials.
鈥淟illith鈥� by Caroline LeBlanc combines the artist鈥檚 feminist-Jungian interest in mythology with a drum and rattle created during her studies of Native American spirituality. A turtle shell filled with dried beans tops the hand-painted drum.
Martha Anderson鈥檚 鈥淭ouching Space鈥� consists of a series of mixed-media cylinders in various shapes.
The 11 artists also produced three films and two photographs.
