Internationally renowned artist Willie Cole, a Newark native, will unveil two chandelier-like sculptures made from more than 6,000 plastic water bottles at Express Newark in the city’s landmark Hahne Building on Thursday, February 2.
"We have a water bottle crisis and a water crisis in general,” said Cole. “Plastic is killing the environment, and lead pipes have impacted big cities around the country, including in Newark. Making a public structure draws attention and makes people ask questions, which can lead to conversation and potential solutions."
The sculptures, called "Spirit Catcher" and "Lumen-Less Lantern," are held together with metal wire and will hang year-long as installations in the Hahne building’s atrium and the lobby of Express Newark, the center for socially engaged art and design at Rutgers University-Newark.
Cole, who is this year’s artist-in-residence at Express Newark, is a sculptor known for assembling found objects and transforming discarded materials into social commentary. He has transformed Express Newark’s Paul Robeson Art Gallery into a working studio and site of co-creation, in which Rutgers-Newark students and residents of Newark were invited to contribute to the making of large-scale sculptures that are both visually striking and ecologically conscious.
Cole’s exhibition is part of Express Newark’s year-long showcasing of work based on the theme “Aliveness,” which informs the center’s programming of art installations, immersive films, public lessons, studio sessions and community classes. Express Newark leaders were inspired by scholar Kevin Quashie’s recent book, “Black Aliveness, or a Poetics of Being.”
“Aliveness” invokes artistic experimentation and an ethos of collectivity to resist the fracture, apathy, and distrust that dominates much of our modern society and disempowers people from demanding long-term change. By bringing together ideas of kinship, communal gathering, and creative process, Aliveness invites audiences and artists to activate this space and explore the relationship between contemporary art, racial freedom, and environmental justice.
“As we contend with existential threats to our democracy and the environment, Aliveness moves us beyond narratives of catastrophe or nihilism,” said Salamishah Tillet, Executive Director of Express Newark. “It enables us to imagine new worlds made of ecologically conscious methods, upcycled materials, and our collective vision and will.”
