Georgia Southern University Art Student Exhibits “A Paper Memoir” at Averitt Center

April 4, 2016

Georgia Southern University’s Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art and the Averitt Center for the Arts presents "The Introspective Meditation on the Focus of Experiential Time: A Paper Memoir” an exhibition of work from Bachelor of Fine Arts student Zak Kelley. The work will be on display in the Averitt Center for the Arts’ Legends Gallery in downtown Statesboro April 1 -27 with an artist talk Thursday, April 14, 5:30 - 7 p.m. in the gallery. One in a series of transformational, site-specific installations that employ handmade paper, this work titled "A Reminiscence of Memorized Time," was created specifically for the Averitt Center for the Arts’ Legends Gallery. Presenting the idea of passing time and meditating on nostalgic memory, Kelley prompts the viewer to identify the human ability to monitor time and memories accurately. In mourning, those grieving hold onto the past, aware but unable to focus on current events as the world continues on. The paper walls represent the passing of time. Objects cast in paper rest on a table, referencing specific moments in time. “Covering rooms in paper represents a space for reflecting on specific moments in time,” said Kelley. “I transform rooms into the reflective areas to invite viewers to physically walk into the full space, as opposed to smaller windows into the space.” Within his coursework in print, paper, and book arts, Kelley has done extensive technical research in the field of fine art papermaking. Kelley begins the process by macerating pure cotton fibers into a coarse pulp to form large sheets of pure white paper that are pressed onto acidic wood boards. Before pressing the sheets of paper on wood, Kelley draws on the wood with a hot glue gun to create a raised relief sub-strait. The acidic reaction of wood and paper creates an aged color to the originally stark white paper. Raised areas oxidize and darken further, and his images appear. Kelley uses a Polymer Relief Embossment technique to create drawings that feature his self-portrait within art historical contexts. Kelley, from Augusta, Georgia, is the printmaking studio technician at Georgia Southern and will receive his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in two-dimensional studio in May.  He will continue his research in the Master of Fine Arts degree program in the Betty Foy Sanders Department of Art this fall. The College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS) is the largest of the eight colleges that make up Georgia Southern University, and it plays a central role in every student’s core of knowledge. CLASS, also described as the University’s College of the Creative Mind, prepares students to achieve academic excellence, develop their analytical skills, enhance their creativity and embrace their responsibilities as citizens of their communities, their nations and the world. CLASS offers more than 20 undergraduate degrees and several interdisciplinary minors from its 11 departments and five academic centers. CLASS offers eight master’s degrees, two graduate certificates and one doctoral degree.  For more information, visit class.georgiasouthern.edu.