Erik DeLuca: The Staff of Asclepias
July 08 - August 01,2020
A sculpture exhibition featuring work by Erik DeLuca. From the organizers:
"The Staff of Asclepias is a social and environmental sculpture conceived by artist Erik DeLuca during his stay at the Corsicana Artist & Writer Residency (also known as 100W), which offers residencies to artists and writers from around the world. DeLuca worked with several members of the Corsicana community to design a series of way stations for the monarch butterfly. The monarch is the Texas state insect and has fascinated DeLuca since he arrived in Texas from his native Rhode Island.
DeLuca converted the Samuels Building, an 1880s mercantile building two blocks from 100W, into a nursery for milkweed. Because monarch caterpillars feed exclusively on the plant, adult butterflies migrating north from Mexico in the spring depend on it to lay their eggs. The growing scarcity of milkweed in the wild has contributed to a drastic 80% decrease in the monarch population. The milkweed DeLuca raised – some 1,000 plants – has been distributed to Hebrew Cemetery and park land in Corsicana and to Sweet Pass Sculpture Park. The exhibit title references the scientific genus of the milkweed, Asclepias.
The exhibition at the ANTEROOM, a window gallery across the street from 100W, includes a sample table with milkweed and a magenta grow light from the Samuels Building nursery and a rendition of the song Sunrise, Sunset from Fiddler on the Roof playing at dusk and dawn. The exhibition at Sweet Pass Sculpture Park includes some 300 of the milkweed plants raised by the artist, which he invited people to plant at the park in early June in accordance with social distancing measures. The milkweed garden is accompanied by a time-based light and sound installation that plays daily at sunrise and sunset. It includes the same rendition of the song at the ANTEROOM and a 100-plus-foot horizontal white LED light sculpture suspended above the ground, invoking the staff of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing. The north-south line of the light sculpture gestures toward the monarchs’ migratory path from Mexico to Canada while conveying ideas of prosperity, health and rejuvenation.
Bastidas said the project exemplifies the Pollock Gallery’s goal of expanding its programming beyond its walls to provide additional opportunities for SMU art students and the community to broaden their understanding of public art and community engagement.
“The Staff of Asclepias is ambitious in both scale and impact,” said Bastidas. “It engages with questions of migration and the powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems. DeLuca’s endeavor to place nature’s patterns at the center of his work offers a new possibility of solidarity, as he dedicates his practice to the service and understanding of vital non-human networks.”
The Staff of Asclepias is accompanied by a publication with contributions by DeLuca and Bastidas, as well as by SMU visiting lecturer in art Tamara Johnson and Trey Burns, founders of Sweet Pass Sculpture Park, and SMU art alumnus Kyle Hobratschk (’11), founder of 100W and the ANTEROOM. The publication was produced by RISO BAR and designed by Juliette Kang.
The ANTEROOM gallery is located at 411 N. Beaton Street in Corsicana (75110). The exhibit is on view through the front window. For updates, visit ANTEROOM’s website.
Sweet Pass Sculpture Park is at 402 Fabrication Street in Dallas (75212). The exhibit may be viewed by appointment. For updates, visit the Sweet Pass website, Facebook page or Instagram account."
