May exhibition in the Main Gallery at the Peoria Art Guild
Exhibition Statement:
Macrocosm, a collaborative exhibition by artists Jan Brandt, Kelly Hieronymus Whiting, and Krystal Kay Lyon, speaks to the wonderment of exploration, travel, observation, and connection to our surroundings.
Brandt’s lushly dense, botanically inspired fiber sculptures are installed on the wall in prolific color groupings reminiscent of seasonal changes. Hand cut, formed, and stitched, using many up-cycled components, these layered compositions offer a dimensional contrast to Whiting’s flatter, geometrically strong, topographically inspired woven “rugs” on the floor. The scale between Brandt’s overgrown sculptures and Whiting landscape paintings stretches the veil between big and small… a sense of vastness and connection to all things. Whiting’s work is tethered to the real world as it is inspired by her time traveling by air and car.
Krystal Kay Lyon provides woven, circular forms that fashion into large, human-like sculptures. These personas inhabit the world Brandt and Whiting have created. Playing with scale, Lyon’s work questions the interplay and importance between people and their surroundings. Viewers may perceive Lyon’s sculptures as stand-ins for themselves, or as an invitation to go deeper into the installation, to join Lyon’s sculptures to decipher the other artist’s visual decision-making.
This installation is meant to challenge the viewer’s perspective, as it would be challenged standing on the edge of a mountain. Perspectival changes in the installation lead the eye to look up, down, and around. Just as technology allows one to zoom in and out on a location, we intend to provide an immersive experience, sometimes literal, sometimes not, changing the gallery space into an adventure in discovery.
