Staniar Gallery Presents “Writer’s Block” The show will be on view Sept. 1-30. Oring will give a public artist’s talk on Sept. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall’s Concert Hall.
The centerpiece of Oring’s exhibition is a series of sculptures in which the artist has enclosed hundreds of typewriters from the 1920s and 30s in sculptural boxes made of rusty construction steel.Washington and Lee’s Staniar Gallery presents “Writer’s Block,” an exhibition of work by acclaimed artist Sheryl Oring. The show will be on view Sept. 1-30. Oring will give a public artist’s talk on Sept. 26 at 5:30 p.m. in Wilson Hall’s Concert Hall. The lecture will be followed by a reception for the artist. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
The centerpiece of Oring’s exhibition is a series of sculptures in which the artist has enclosed hundreds of typewriters from the 1920s and 30s in sculptural boxes made of rusty construction steel. By “caging” the typewriters, Oring symbolically takes away the writer’s means of expression as a metaphor for censorship, asking viewers to consider their own ideas about freedom of speech. “Writer’s Block” premiered on Berlin’s Bebelplatz, site of that city’s Nazi book-burning, on the 66th anniversary of the 1933 event that destroyed the works of authors ranging from Nelly Sachs and Else Lasker-Schüler to Bertolt Brecht and Arnold Zweig.
Oring’s work has been shown worldwide, including at the International Symposium on Electronic Art in Dubai; Encuentro in São Paulo, Brazil; Art Prospect festival in St. Petersburg, Russia; the Jewish Museum Berlin; and the Bryant Park in New York. She is based in Greensboro, North Carolina where she is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina.
Staniar Gallery is located on the second floor of Wilson Hall in W&L’s Lenfest Center for the Arts. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, please call 540-458-8861.
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