No better way to celebrate the 30th birthday of an iconic sculpture than to be inspired by it. UNLV is seeking artist responses to Claes Oldenburg’s “Flashlight.” The 38-foot tall, 74,000-pound steel sculpture towers over the campus’s Pida Plaza, where it greets concert- and theatergoers on their way into Judy Bayley Theatre and Artemus Ham Hall, even drawing occasional tourists who happen to learn of the pop landmark by Oldenburg and his late wife, Coosje Van Bruggen.
The open call to artists requests work created in response to the sculpture—interpretations, adaptations, modifications, alterations, etc. Artists could also take it a step further and capture the lore surrounding its construction and arrival. One story: authorities mistook it for a missile on its way across Hoover Dam.
Entries are due by December 15. Selected works will be featured in a juried exhibition in January at Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery. For more information visit donnabeamgallery.unlv.edu.
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