Above: Photo credit: Robert Divers Herrick
"Weights and Measures: The axis of mourning and grief"
Thursday, March 5, 4:00 p.m.
Lectures will be in Lawrence Hall, Room 115, 1190 Franklin Boulevard, Eugene, OR 97403.
“Weights & Measures” conveys multiple meanings. It refers to the burdens our bodies and psyches carry, the passage of time, and musical tempos. At its most literal, it evokes systems of value and order. The talk will discuss Khoury’s last three years of work that have focused on collectivity, intangibility, music, food, athleticism, and death. Through the process of assemblage, casting, printmaking, forging, welding, and hand-building forms, Khoury continues to explore what makes something, or someone, worth more or less than another? The athleticism of death, the aestheticism of the everyday, and the cultural imperatives that create the weights we bear. The talk will share the unique processes of casting at the Kohler Factory in Wisconsin two summers in a row, first in foundry and then in pottery.
Sahar Khoury is an artist based in Oakland, California. Khoury makes sculptures that integrate abstraction, personal and political symbols, and an intuitive sensitivity to site. Found or rejected objects that are immediate, abundant, and recurring serve as a script for constructions made of metal, clay, cement, and papier-mâché. Trained as a cultural anthropologist and having never taken any fundamental art classes, Khoury continues to develop an idiosyncratic approach to merging diverse materials, with a primary commitment to spontaneity and interdependence. She received her BA in Anthropology from UC Santa Cruz in 1996 and her MFA from UC Berkeley in 2013.