FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 8, 2004

CONTACT: Nora Wendl, (515) 271-1994, nora.wendl@drake.edu
Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119, lisa.lacher@drake.edu

ANDERSON GALLERY TO FEATURE KENDALL BUSTER'S 'MODEL CITY'

Internationally recognized and considered one of Washington, D.C.’s most celebrated artists, Kendall Buster creates large-scale sculptures that exist simultaneously as object and as architecture, revealing the interchange of interior and exterior space. So cleverly and delicately articulated in detail and in form, her works almost belie the fact that they are secure enough to be inhabited by viewers.

Buster was profiled last month on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition." The profile begins by saying, "For sculptor Kendall Buster, there is no distinction between art and sciences. Trained as a microbiologist, she explores the forms and landscapes seen in a microscope lens through her giant sculptures." The story can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4079067.

In "Model City," Buster creates an installation that responds directly to the architectural space of the Anderson Gallery at Drake University. Revisiting the collapsible, lightweight forms of her earlier works, she continues an exploration of the same boundaries that she began in such sculptures as "Subterrain" (2003) and "Cells" (2001).

To create this "Model City," flexible fiberglass tent-poles give form to nylon fabric. Eighty identical dome tents, dyed turquoise blue, are configured in a grid, five tents across and 16 tents deep. This grid covers the entire surface of the ceiling at the Anderson Gallery, suspended on cables to create a seamless "artificial sky." This glowing blue plane sweeps across the gallery at 7 feet above the ground, gently sloping toward the back of the space and hovering at just 4 feet above the ground, allowing a visitor the opportunity to duck under the "sky" for a glimpse of its structure.

A play on the meaning of the word "model," the title of Buster’s installation suggests countless interpretations. One might imagine the installation operating as a plan for a larger, unrealized project, perhaps futuristic, nomadic housing. The scale of the "Model City" also comes into question.

Buster incorporates shapes into her sculpture that allude to microscopic worlds, blown up hundreds of thousands of times. This blue grid could exist as a scaled model of a system of enormous, multi-segmented pavilions, or as a microscopic view of an industrial textile. Is this static, constructed space, or the shifting segment of a larger fabric? These questions allow Buster, and viewers, to understand and engage her sculptures as living and evolving entities.

Buster received her master’s degree in sculpture from Yale University. She teaches sculpture at Virginia Commonwealth University, and is represented by Fusebox in Washington, D.C.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Kendall Buster, "Model City"
Nov. 19 – Dec. 17
Artist's Lecture:
Monday, Nov. 15, 6 p.m.
Levitt Hall, Old Main, 25th Street and University Avenue
Opening Reception:
Friday, Nov. 19, 5-7 p.m.
Gallery Talk: Friday, Nov. 19, 5:30 p.m.

CONTACT
Anderson Gallery: (515) 271-1994
Fax: (515) 271-2558
E-mail: andersongalleryinfo@drake.edu
Web site: www.drake.edu/andersongallery

ADDRESS
Anderson Gallery
Drake University
25th Street and Carpenter Avenue
Harmon Fine Arts Center
Des Moines, IA 50311
The main entrance to the Anderson Gallery is on 25th Street, on the street level of Harmon Fine Arts Center (red brick building on the northwest corner of 25th and Carpenter). Free, two-hour parking is available on 24th and 25th Streets.

GALLERY HOURS
Tuesday through Sunday
Noon to 4 p.m.
Free admission to the Anderson Gallery and programs at the gallery

ABOUT THE ANDERSON GALLERY
The Anderson Gallery, a nonprofit exhibition space at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, was founded in 1996 to exhibit and support innovation in art and design. The gallery strives to enrich the cultural life of the University and area communities through diverse and challenging exhibitions, educational programs and publications.

As a showcase for art and design exhibitions, the Anderson Gallery, with its humanistic and interdisciplinary interpretation of art and culture, is an essential component of the University’s academic programs and the Department of Art and Design. The gallery offers area residents, visitors and students from all disciplines the opportunity to participate in the current discourse and historical context surrounding art and design.

CUTLINES:
Buster3.jpg: “Parabiosis (Interior),” Kendall Buster, 2003, Kreeger Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.

Buster6.jpg: “Subterrain (Below),” Kendall Buster, 2003, Kreeger Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.

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