"Celestial Bodies" is a hanging sculpture created by artist Ismael de Anda III with students and faculty in the College of Human Sciences and the School of Art.
The Texas Tech University College of Human Sciences and J.T. & Margaret Talkington College of Visual and Performing Arts will unveil a temporary art installation at 3 p.m. Friday in the entry breezeway of the Human Sciences Building. The hanging sculpture, "Celestial Bodies," is the result of work by artist-in-residency Ismael de Anda III and students and faculty within the Apparel Design & Manufacturing program, housed within the Department of Design in the College of Human Sciences, and the School of Art.
The event will includse a talk from de Anda about the installation, followed by a reception in Human Sciences Room 169. It is free and open to the public.
The piece is a site-specific installation, drawing inspiration from Lubbock's wind and aviation history and the artist's personal interest in science fiction. It was created from a variety of materials, including souvenir T-shirts donated by the local community.
"The T-shirts were collected from students in the apparel design program, the College of Human Sciences and the School of Art," said Rachel Anderson, assistant professor of apparel design and manufacturing. "The artist also brought T-shirts that had some personal meaning to him, so it's a mixture."
Sculpture students from the School of Art assisted de Anda in creating a large, bone-like framework for the piece, while apparel design students worked with Anderson to repurpose the T-shirts into panels of "skin" affixed to the framework.
"I worked with the artist to create a template in laying out the pieces, and he decided how they would be arranged," Anderson said. "We began cutting them and then putting them together to make the large canopy. It's an artistic way of cutting and arranging them by color and pattern to create a large-scale design."
Anderson said the students are excited to see the piece unveiled.
"They were amazed when they saw the whole piece put together and its visual impact," Anderson said. "Much of Ismael's work focuses on communities being involved in his pieces, so it's wonderful that Texas Tech students get to participate in an art piece that is going to be up for everyone to see."
Funding for de Anda's artist-in-residency and the sculpture included funds from the Ryla T. & John F. Lott Endowment for Excellence in the Visual Arts and the Landmark Arts, whose exhibitions and visiting artists and scholars programs are supported through a generous grant from the Helen Jones Foundation of Lubbock.
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