Brookhaven Courier

Issue date: 4/2/07 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Shreeya Rana "Right Wing, Left Wing" by Phillip Shore

Five times in the last three weeks I have been to the Forum Gallery to collect my thoughts. The gallery, which is located in F101 at Brookhaven College, has been a quiet sanctuary while its current exhibition titled "Phillip Shore: Within" has been a journey of discoveries for me.

I would not have seen the human-like thumbs of the tree limb in Shore's piece "Life Cycle" had the Gallery Director David Newman not walked me through the display. I would have also not caught the subtleties of an artwork composed of 15 separate hands that signal in sign language the title of the piece - "Visible Evidence."

Nevertheless, I could see throughout the display how hands were significant to the artist. Shore agreed and said, "When I worked for an archeologist in Greece what struck me most was not the temple, the statue or the pottery but rather the marks of the maker, finger prints in clay, chisel marks in stone, evidence of the hand."

Shore, assistant professor of art at the University of Dallas, combines human forms with natural elements in his work. He said the insects he uses for his exhibit such as the moth, beetle and cicada killer were all found.

"I do not kill them for my art," Shore said. "I have had people bring me living insects, which I release."

In his work, "Right Wing, Left Wing," he places delicate, paper-thin dragonfly wings within wooden hands that are shaped to resemble wings. His other pieces incorporate acorn, beeswax, bumblebee or cockroach with wood, metal coating or resin to produce art that represents man as much as it does nature.

Brookhaven is also hosting an exhibit titled "Express & Local" in the Studio Gallery located in D127. The artist Max Kazemz-adeh, assistant professor of Electronic Media Art at the University of North Texas, said, "'Express & Local' is an interactive installation with projection and sound revolving around the decision and experience of choosing to travel on the express or local subway line in transit."

The display is a curious mix of advanced gadgets and musical toys for children, which work together in producing art that to me is well, curious.

Both the exhibits will be on display through April 12 in the respective galleries.

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