Great Lakes region focus of new art exhibit

A visual exploration of the natural resources and region of the Great Lakes is the focus of a new art exhibition at Grand Valley State University.

"Great Lakes: Image & Word" will be on display through April 1 in the Art Gallery located in the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus. An opening reception will take place January 21 from 5-7 p.m.

David Newell, Gallery and Collections curator of exhibitions, said "Great Lakes" spotlights the unique life experiences of those who live in this region of the Midwest. 

"The area's complex environmental zones, landscapes, extreme weather patterns, contrasting nautical and agricultural cultures and ethnic customs all create a rather singular experience," Newell said.

Patricia Clark, Writing Department chair, will showcase a poem, entitled "Threnody," which means a song, hymn or poem of mourning composed as a memorial to the dead.

"I was moved, a few years ago, by the number of drowning victims in Lake Michigan during just a few summer months," Clark said. "I imagined victims, over time, of all the Great Lakes, and the sound of their sadness."

The collaborative work of Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Stuart and Barbara Padnos Distinguished Artist-in-Residence, and Arizona-based artist Ander Monson is the result of research surrounding an old U.S. Navy project. Collazo-Llorens said "Project ELF" consisted of two transmitters designed to communicate one-way coded messages to submarines around the world. One transmitter is located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula near Republic, with the other located in northern Wisconsin.

"Since Project ELF was shut down in 2004, I figured the ground would have some sort of leftover mark or trace of where the cables were located," Collazo-Llorens said. "While on the site, I took photographs, recorded audio and video and collected stones and other organic matter while also mapping my movement through the area."

These collected materials will be showcased through a seven-minute video and a series of 16 prints on paper.

For more information about "Great Lakes," visit the Art Gallery website.