FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FROM: Staunton Augusta Art Center
Augus Carter, Executive Director
Carolyn Maloney, Operations Manager

The Staunton Augusta Art Center presents Embracy Entropy, a Performance/Sculpture/Sound Art Piece by R. Mertens on Friday, May 10 in the galleries.

May 10th, 2024, 6:30
Staunton Augusta Arts Center presents Embracing Entropy, Performance/Sculpture/Sound Art Piece by R. Mertens, Friday, May 10, 2024 at 6:30 pm in the galleries.
Co-organized by Angus Carter, Execu�ve Director of SAAC, featured performers and artists include: R. Mertens, Ryn Duong, Taylor Hanigosky, Julia Vessey, and
Katherine Mills-Yatsko.

Mertens’ wearable and sonic sculptures quietly and grotesquely reveal the body as an object of contempla�on to consider the dynamics of decay, self-reflec�on and recovery. U�lizing wool and steel to create forms reminiscent of internal organs and tumors via crochet, basketry, wet fel�ng, and rust dyeing: objects become extension of the human figure. Amplified bodily sounds pushed to the point of distor�on are the pulse and score anima�ng the sculptures and enveloping the performers.
Mertens views the body as an archeological site. Scars, stretchmarks, and blemishes can be read like ar�facts, glyphs or midden sites and the processes used in his artwork inform its content and metaphors. Raw wool mixed with ungalvanized steel is wet felted; causing the wool to contort in unpredictable ways and the steel to rust. The accumula�on of s�tches act as cells in the body and fel�ng is the environment that forms us. The random shaping of the fel�ng process is a metaphor for a lack of control and the rus�ng process leads to the “death” of the form over �me.

This performance is FREE and ALL are welcome.

Location: Staunton Augusta Art Center, R. R. Smith Center for History & Art,
20 S. New Street, Staunton, VA 24401
Admission: FREE and open to the public, all are welcome.
Website: https://www.saartcenter.org

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Angus Carter and Carolyn Maloney
(director@saartcenter.org/info@saartcenter.org), 540-885-2028

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