Augusta State will be one of the venues for the celebration of the city’s first Westobou Festival, and in August, will kick off two art exhibitions that have been selected to be part of the festival.

The first, cosponsored by the Clay Artists of the Southeast (C.A.S.E.) and installed under the guidance of Jackson Cheatham, ASU’s Gallery Director, will be an exhibition titled Inviting the Stars – An Exhibition of Local and National Ceramic Art, which opens Aug. 28 and runs through Oct. 2.

Seventeen C.A.S.E. ceramic artists have invited one nationally known artist each for a total of 34 pieces, plus one honorary work by Don Reitz, one of the most important and influential ceramic artists of this century. Ms. Priscilla Hollingsworth, also a member of C.A.S.E. and an associate professor of art, will also participate in the exhibition, as will ASU student Heather Gaitonde and Carissa Doying, part-time instructor of art. The diversity of work in the exhibition exemplifies the broad range of contemporary ceramic art produced throughout America.

The second exhibition is a temporary landscape-oriented project that relates archaeology to sculpture. Athens-based sculptor RG Brown was chosen by the art faculty for this exhibit because of his use of boat imagery and its connections to history and place. Displayed on the ASU campus will be a total of four traditional African canoes, two dugout and two plank style, that the artist commissioned as part of a Fulbright project in West Africa. These boats will be up during the festival and the artist’s gallery show.

RG Brown was chosen by the Department of Art because of his use of boat imagery in his sculpture. “This was seen as a good selection for the Westobou Festival, Westobou being the Native American name for the Savannah River, with its connections to history and place,” says faculty artist Brian Rust. “Also, it’s a good fit with the ASU campus, with our rich archaeological history,” he says.

Brown creates artworks that involve burying forms under the earth, having them scanned with sonar-type equipment, and then using that imagery as documentation for gallery-based artworks. The ASU project will involve these elements. On Aug. 13, Physical Plant staff excavated a hole approximately 30ft long, 12ft wide, and 3ft deep. Dr. Christopher Murphy, ASU’s resident archaeologists, suggested the best site for the digging, which is near parking lot #5. The artist, along with help from art students, formed a plywood and foam boat in the hole, which was then covered. Sonar scans will be performed Aug. 29 through Sept. 1, which will then be turned into digital images.

The end product of this will be an exhibition of the documentation in the New Space Gallery in October of 2008.

As part of the Westabou Festival, the two art exhibitions will include receptions and artists’ talks. For more information, contact the art department at 706-667-4888.

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