Installation in the WVU Downtown Campus Library Central Stairway: Shadow Gadgets
Fabric (treated with a flame retardant) with metal hanging hardware*
Dylan Collins and Jo Nelson, 2021
*Special thanks to Morgantown vendors Fabric on a Roll and Ace Hardware for help with the supplies.
Dylan Collins creates public art, teaches sculpture at West Virginia University, and has facilitated STEM => STEAM art programming for WVU Extension 4-H summer camps. Jo Nelson, a recent transplant to West Virginia, has been invited to create participatory public art internationally as well as helping to organize cultural events in community gardens and parks in New York City. They have done several public art projects together, including an aluminum tile mural in New Martinsville with 4H-ers and an upcoming bird blind for the West Virginia Botanic Garden. View Footage of Installation
For this installation, we painted "shadows" using steel and cast-iron farm equipment as stencils. We found some of the metal parts on the Collins family farm, some are from farms in the area collected at yard sales and gifted from friends, and some were forged in the metal studio on campus. We arranged them as a catalog of different forms and functions to create a visual journey for viewers moving through the stairwell. We hope that this evokes memories for folks that grew up in rural areas of the rusty treasures they found as children and pays homage to our predecessors in food production.
Image Gallery