‘AN UNBROKEN CIRCLE’: TIMOTHY HURSLEY, JAMES MATTHEWS, PETER SCHEIDT
THROUGH 1/23/2022. Trinity Gallery, Historic Arkansas Museum. Free.
This collection of three Arkansas artists — photographer Timothy Hursley, sculptor/woodworker Peter Scheidt and documentarian/textile artist James Matthews — takes its name from the old gospel tune, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and, Curator of Exhibits Carey Voss said in a video livestreamed from the exhibit’s opening night, from the idea of transformation. Seemingly disparate in terms of technique, all three artists, Voss said, “are completing that circle where they engage with materials that have been cast off or left for dead, in a way.” That goes for Matthews’ found object quilts, Scheidt’s furniture sculptures and Hursley’s haunting prints.
“Abandoned objects,” a press release states, “are reborn through relationships of interdependence: between those who originally made a thing and the artist who recognizes potential for alteration where others see only trash. The circle is completed when the viewer interprets the item anew.” Catch it through January 2022, and keep an eye on the museum’s YouTube channel for some exposition from the museum’s staff.