In the bowels of the Second Street Art Gallery, a 13-by-27 foot wall has emerged as a testament to movement and the human body.
With the help of 20 volunteers, University graduate Judith Leemann has just turned her latest artistic vision into an awe-inspiring physical reality.
The Second Street Art Gallery off the Downtown Mall is showcasing Leemann's first large-scale solo show until Feb. 24, a site-specific exhibition that is intended to "elicit a kinesthetic response" from viewers.
Leemann designed, on paper, a wooden wall that extends from the floor to the ceiling and spans the length of the entire room. The wall is swathed in translucent, handsewn fabrics, "so that when you look through it there are several layers visible," Leemann explained.
So what does she mean when she says her materials often elicit a physical response?
"What people have described to me is not, 'I've had a sharp pain in my left leg,' but walking in and seeing the piece and being really aware of their own body all of a sudden," said the soft-spoken Leemann.
Although the final product may appear very abstract, people still relate to it because "the source of the work is in concrete, everyday experiences," she added.
Over the course of five days, volunteers helped her create the sculpture from her comprehensive sketches.
Leemann is going to "transform our space into a sculptural environment," gallery director Leah Stoddard said.
"We're very excited to be able to give her this opportunity," Stoddard said. "She's been so hungry to do something of this scale. This is a really unique opportunity to be able to showcase her work."
Leemann graduated from the University in 1993, creating an Echols interdisciplinary major with a focus on psychology and studio art classes. She then received a fifth-year Aunspaugh Fellowship for achievement in the arts.
"I came in thinking I was going to be a psychobiologist," Leemann said of entering the University. "I realized pretty early on that I couldn't see myself in a lab doing research for the rest of my life. The ideas in the field really interested me, but it was through art and through other things that I could express them."
Leemann's former teacher, retired art professor Holly Wright, expressed surprise that Leemann ended up as an artist.
"I was hoping she was going to be my doctor," Wright exclaimed.
But Wright is not at all bewildered by her former student's success.
"I remember specifically, from the beginning, her amazing talent and her generosity," Wright said. "She was such a wonderful student to have in class because she was so attentive to everybody else's work as well as her own."
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The respect is reciprocal. Leemann explained that she loved the University's art department because her teachers were very receptive and encouraged their students to make a connection between "the art that they're making and other classes that they're taking."
Indeed, Leemann has drawn significantly from her life experiences and interests to create a unique visual and artistic creation in the Second Street Art Gallery.
"Her materials are very much her own identity and her own upbringing," Stoddard said.
Much of what Leemann draws from is her interest in kinesthetics.
"What I've done in the past couple years is a lot of study of movement and of the body," she said.
Leemann teaches a form of movement education that is neither dance nor exercise called the Alexander technique. It is a class in which the participant becomes aware of the body by recognizing habits of movement.
"A lot of the work I'm doing now has to do with our own relationships with our bodies and the way in which we feel at home with them or estranged from them," she said.
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