New works in three buildings at University of the South

Brandon Morse, "In the Shadow of the Valley of Death," 2012, 2-channel generative video. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Photo by Contributed Photo /Chattanooga Times Free Press.

A panel discussion and campus walk will mark the opening of three exhibitions at the University of the South this weekend.

“David Henderson: A Brief History of Aviation” will be exhibited in the Jessie Ball duPont Library and the Carlos Gallery of the Nabit Art Building. “Brandon Morse: Dark Matter” will be featured in the University Art Gallery.

The panel discussion, set for 4:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 22, in Convocation Hall, will feature both artists and Dr. Jeff Thompson of the Art and Art History Department. A reception will follow in the duPont Library at 5:45 p.m. (all times are Central). The University Jazz Quartet will perform at the reception, and light refreshments will be served.

“A Brief History of Aviation” will fill the periodicals area of duPont Library with luminous, soaring fan vaults derived from the 15th-century architecture of England’s Bath Abbey.

The exhibition of the same name in the Carlos Gallery is dedicated to the evolution of Henderson’s forms and to his creative process. His sculptures are monumental in scale but remarkably lightweight. Meticulously designed with 3-D modeling programs, they preserve traces of their hands-on construction.

“Dark Matter” will transform the space of the University Art Gallery with hypnotic generative video projections and sound. The physical phenomena of entropy and emergence, growth and decay are all simulated through digital systems, scientific algorithms and programming code. Morse’s video simulations at times evoke the atmospheric shifts of weather systems, at times the life and death of underwater creatures.

These exhibits, as well as archives and special collections, may be viewed in a campus gallery walk with the artists from 10:30 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 23. The walk also will explore plans and changes on campus and the materials related to the university’s revivalist architecture. Light refreshments will be provided.

“A Brief History of Aviation” will remain on view in duPont Library through Aug. 13 and in the Carlos Gallery through March 23. “Dark Matter” will remain in the University Art Gallery through April 7. The campus will be closed for spring break March 7-18.

For more information, call 931-598-1223 or visit www.sewanee.edu/gallery.