‘Monuments: Creative Forces’ is a Hit at Strathmore

‘Monuments: Creative Forces’ is a Hit at Strathmore

This month Strathmore welcomed us all back to their 16-acre campus to experience Monuments: Creative Forces (click to get your reserved time ticket), a campus-wide outdoor art installation by Australian artist Craig Walsh.

The photos by Adam Brockett show how truly captivating the art that is currently in our backyard truly is. The faces are 8 minute loops that move while they are projected onto trees.

Per Strathmore: The exhibition features moving, dimensional video portraits of artists whose work and artistic endeavors are changing the shape of our community in profound ways. Expansive video portraits of these creative heroes, chosen by a diverse panel of community and arts leaders, are projected on to towering trees, transforming them into animated sculptural monuments.

Monuments redefines traditional expectations of public monuments and the selective history represented in our civic spaces. At a time when our nation questions the efficacy of effigy, we’re creating a space for the community to further explore the conversation around monuments and their meaning. The exhibition challenges the traditional concept of monuments to celebrate living, contributing, members of our community.

Monuments is particularly resonant today as Strathmore’s campus becomes a space for safe connection between community and the art that shapes it. “We’re thrilled to be able to honor and celebrate the way these artists are impacting the community,” shares our Artistic Director Joi Brown, “the exhibition allows Strathmore to leverage our entire campus to create a comfortable and socially distant environment for the community to engage with and enjoy the arts during the ongoing pandemic.”

A representational and diverse panel of community and arts leaders focused on work in our region convened to review and select these monumental people to recognize. The panel evaluated the artists, rating them on criteria including how the artist speaks truth to power through their creative work, do they create unity in places of division, and is there something about the artists’ presence or activity in the community that feels “seismic” or “earth-shaking.”

About Craig Walsh 
Monuments is the brainchild of internationally acclaimed artist Craig Walsh. Known for his pioneering works, including innovative approaches to projection mapping in unconventional sites, Walsh’s site-responsive works have animated natural environments and features such as trees, rivers, and mountains, as well as public art projects in urban and architectural spaces. Walsh’s work is distinctive for its conceptual underpinnings and deftly woven narrative.

The Experience
All visitors, regardless of ticket time and pay-what-you-can entry option, will experience the entire exhibition. After passing through our contactless scanning station, visitors will move through Strathmore’s campus to view each of 6 dimensional monuments, projected in trees around the perimeter. Directional signs and volunteers will be available to guide visitors along the way, but each group can move at their own comfortable pace and explore various views of each monument. Read more for tips for an ideal visit below.

Photos courtesy of Adam Brockett.