Work of 3 Pitt Studio Arts Faculty Members Featured in 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' Exhibition

Issue Date: 
April 5, 2010
Detail from "This Mountain-girl ground #2" by Barbara Weissberger, Studio Arts faculty member.Detail from "This Mountain-girl ground #2" by Barbara Weissberger, Studio Arts faculty member.

A current art exhibition that is as playful and quirky as the children’s game that inspired it features the work of three Pitt faculty members.

Rock, Paper, Scissors—running through May 23 at three separate Pittsburgh galleries—showcases work by 40 local, national, and international artists. (In the children’s hand game of the same name, each of the two players uses a hand symbol to create an item; the rock sign trumps the scissors sign, the scissors sign trumps paper, and the paper sign beats the rock.)

Artwork inspired by the rock theme is showing at SPACE, 812 Liberty Ave., Downtown. The art ranges from videos to installation art and includes works created by Delanie Jenkins, chair of Pitt’s Department of Studio Arts, as well as studio arts faculty members Anna Divinsky and Barbara Weissberger.

Jenkins’ piece, titled “Patterns for Disarmament,” uses paper, glue, ink, carbon, and stone. Like the hand game, Jenkins’ piece pursues futile attempts at using paper to disarm a series of rocks. Divinsky’s work, “Patch,” is made of hand-dyed silk and while seemingly inviting to touch, it has a prickly surface. Weissberger offers a digital collage inspired by the story of Prometheus titled “This Mountain-girt ground #2,” and uses Rorschach-like collages to form an array of imagery.

Two other galleries are presenting artwork on the paper and scissors themes. The exhibition segment on paper, which includes intricate paper cutouts and sculpture, is located at Artist Image Resource, 518 Foreland St., North Side. The scissors portion of the exhibition, featuring all things sharp and shiny, is at Fe Arts Gallery, 4102 Butler St., Lawrenceville.

Rock, Paper, Scissors is curated by Jill Larson, director of the Fe Arts Gallery.

Jenkins said the three-gallery exhibition was unusual enough that she wanted to participate, even though she does not usually create artwork based on a particular theme for an exhibition.

“The best outcome in a curator-artist relationship is when both are well served. The concept of this show was intriguing enough to draw me in. My thought process and experiments in attempting to address the theme have expanded my body of work. I’m onto something new, and I look forward to developing the body of work this summer,” Jenkins said.

In addition, she said, Larson’s concept of creating a show spread among three galleries “is a first in Pittsburgh. I appreciate Jill’s sense of bridge building in the community while also highlighting the wonderful artists that make Pittsburgh their home. From the sneak peeks I’ve had throughout this week at two of the venues, this is going to be a really energetic and exciting show for Pittsburgh—with national visibility. That is great for all of us.”