Jan 30 - Feb 27 / Gallery hours: M-F 8am-4:30pm
Vulcan Materials Gallery at Alabama School of Fine Arts
Solo show featuring new artwork by Jasper Lee and music by Vernal Scuzz
Closing reception Thurs, Feb 27th, 5-7pm. Performance at 6pm
Two Centuries Later is a survey of Lee’s work made over the last several years across a range of media
including video installation, sound sculpture, collage, experimental film and painting. A theme throughout
is the opening of portals with sound, circular forms and projection. A series of large painted wooden discs
use a circular format to reference hex signs, wheels of fortune, shields, clocks, containers of ingredients
and cauldrons. Iron hoops hung on the wall also appear as thresholds through which arms reach out hold-
ing garlands of objects strung together such as broken jewelry, can lids, small radios, keys and a crude doll
made of yarn which hovers like an angel. Off in a corner, a video illuminating a birdbath creates a scrying
pool. An egg spins in the water amidst a swirling feedback loop, turning the projection into a magic illusion.
Nearby, a gang of scarecrows stand on guard in front of an Antique Sadness Hex. Their cobbled together
figures made of wooden limbs, buckets, cloth, car parts and disassembled speakers which project wailing
and hissing sounds that echo through the space. In another area, a fifteen foot high radio tower assembled
with bamboo is crowned with a makeshift antenna and bright red ribbons radiating down as if ‘round a maypole.
Inside is a listening station transmitting recordings from Sweet Wreath Speaks!, an ecologically themed radio
art festival organized by Lee and collaborators in spring of 2024.
