FOR THE UNCREATIVE, A HEAP OF METAL IS JUST THAT—A PILE OF USELESS, RUSTY WASTE. For the sculptor, however, a salvage yard is unchartered territory ripe with hidden treasure. Since spring semester 2014, John Powers, associate professor of sculpture at the University of Tennessee, has led a class on a salvage dig at a local mill to create sculptures for an exhibition on display throughout April. It’s a beginning-to-end process, from finding materials and designing a sculpture to organizing the event from set-up to take-down. “The project with students came about in an organic way. We’d been in dialogue with the mill as a field trip for a fabrication class, and somewhere in the midst of that, the Dogwood Arts people got in the conversation. My class got involved the first year I was in Knoxville,” John says. “We did the dig and started talking with Moxley Carmichael about having a show and tying it in with recycling month. We work with the convention center, and for the last five years, that space has been donated.” CONTINUED >
Dylan Bagnasco
April 2019 | West Knoxville Lifestyle
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