Art Comes Alive At Gallery
There is a notion that artists are dedicated hermits, creating their art in a solitary fashion. Li Huai, a visual artist and professor at University of Californiaâ“San Diego, relies on collaboration to create. Tulane art students worked with her recently to build Duct Tape, Chinese Ink, Etc., a site-specific installation piece at the Carroll Gallery on the Tulane uptown campus.
Visual artist Li Huai and Tulane students talk about their work to create an exhibit in the Carroll Gallery in this video produced
by Brandon Meginley and Nick Marinello.
The three rooms in the gallery are like a Chinese courtyard, says Huai.
A canvas, split bilaterally, hangs from the wall in the main room. A massive, Rorschach-like inkblot begs the question, "What do you see here?" Chinese names are strewn on its outskirts, each accompanied by its own splash of black ink. For this piece, the artist used Chinese ink, sea salt and hot wax.
These are not her only materials, however. Huai and the students filled dozens of Styrofoam trays with water to make indoor reflective pools of the floors in two rooms. Fluorescent orange duct tape runs along each entrance. These rooms are blocked off, both literally and symbolically. And in the distance, out of reach, portraits of men and women hang on the walls and are reflected in the pool at your feet.
Duct Tape, Chinese Ink, Etc. is open to the public until Oct. 23 at the gallery, located in the Woldenberg Art Center.
Brandon Meginley is a senior majoring in journalism at Tulane University.
