by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
Megan Jacobs incorporates many forms of media to bring her ideas to life.
And she has plenty of both.
"I am interested in the idea of mapping," Jacobs said.
The impetus of her show is to map the ephemeral, or fleeting aspects of life, such as love, memory and where one's body has been.
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Jacobs has been working on the pieces for "Flight Patterns of Empty Energy" since last spring.
In the exhibit, viewers will see lithographs, glasswork, X-rays enhanced by light bulbs, a card catalog full of memories called "Card Catalog: Reinvestigating Memory" and a shallow body of water in a large black box called "Uprooted."
"The reason I built this box is because it holds exactly to a tee the amount of water of two bodies," Jacobs said.
She said she will set a chunk of ice that will melt in the box, filling it to the rim. The surface tension will hold the water in.
"I'm interested in the process of change," Jacobs said.
In the piece, change happens with solid ice turning to liquid and then turning to gas, she said.
Jacobs has also incorporated how the human body changes with the influence of technology into her art.
"Staring at a computer is depleting our peripheral vision," she said.
When she addresses the human body, she focuses on wounds, pain and suffering.
"Pain and suffering of the body can end up leading to wars," she said.
She said she is interested in how memories are rooted in documents.
"Look, this was me," she said pointing to an imaginary picture on the wall. "This is proof I was happy. But photographs are inherently lies. They capture one five-hundredth of a second. But what about the second before, or the second after? We put a lot of weight on these documents."
She said it is important to realize photographs are faulty.
For an interactive piece, Jacobs borrowed a card catalog from a library and filled the drawers with different candy, cloth, a video screen and index cards on which random people wrote their memories.
"The card catalog is an archaic form of locating information," Jacobs said. "So with this idea of mapping, if someone told me to map myself, I'd think, 'Where do I begin?'"
She wanted to bring together objects that represented snippets of memories.
"I have little glass bottles, photographs, teeth and hair, and a little video screen that plays a scan of my brain," she said.
Jacobs said she wanted to have a piece that communicated with other people.
"I started this project where I had people write any memory that came to mind," she said. "Some of them are so fascinating."
Those who attend the show Friday night will have a chance to be part of this piece.
"I would love people to become a part of this catalog piece," Jacobs said. "So if they would like to put their memories in the show, that would be wonderful."
"Flight patterns of empty energy"
Through Saturday
Artist talk today at 5:30 pm
John Sommers Gallery, second floor of Art building
