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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 31, 2006

PRESS CONTACT:   
Andrea Potochniak
607 254-4563
arp37@cornell.edu

The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Presents
Afterburn—Willie Cole: Selected Works 1997–2004

Artist to speak at Museum on Thursday, April 27

Ithaca, NY—The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University presents Afterburn—Willie Cole: Selected Works 1997–2004, on view from April 8 to May 28, 2006.

African-American artist Willie Cole (born 1955) transforms discarded domestic items and electronic gadgets into sculptures that refer to African art and mythology. Old blow-dryers become African masks; ironing boards with scorched-on patterns from hot irons resemble shields; women’s high-heeled shoes transform into totemic figures.

Cole rescues throwaways that are textured by time and gives them new life as works that evoke multiple associations—domestic labor, religious ritual, and the history of Western appropriation of African forms. As an artist who works in an industrial section of New Jersey, he finds his battered materials, with their obvious traces of use, close by. He adds to these objects the legacy of his African ancestry and his knowledge of African art and world religions.

The exhibition focuses on his well-known works with scorch-marks made by flatirons, as well as works made during his residency in the Arts/Industry Program at Kohler Co. in 2000. The show also includes a major installation, To get to the other side (2001), comprised of thirty-two cast concrete lawn jockeys.

A free tour of the exhibition will be offered as part of the Museum’s “Art for Lunch” series on Thursday, April 27 at 12:00 noon, led by Andrea Inselmann, the Museum’s curator of modern and contemporary art. The artist will give a free talk at the Museum on April 27 at 5:15 p.m.

The exhibition has been organized by the University of Wyoming Art Museum and funded in part by Jennifer McSweeney and Peter Reuss, the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, the Norton Family Foundation, the National Advisory Board of the University of Wyoming Art Museum, and the National Endowment for the Arts. The Johnson Museum’s presentation of the exhibition was funded in part by a grant from the Cornell Council for the Arts.

The Johnson Museum has a permanent collection of over 30,000 works of art from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The museum building was designed by I. M. Pei. Funds for the building were donated by Cornell alumnus Herbert F. Johnson, late president and chairman of S C Johnson. The building opened in 1973.

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The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, located on the campus of Cornell University, is open Tuesdays to Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. The Museum is completely accessible for mobility-impaired visitors, and a wheelchair is available in the lobby. Metered parking is available in the lot next to the Museum. For more information, please call 607 255-6464. Visit the Museum’s website at  www.museum.cornell.edu. The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art is a proud member of Ithaca’s Discovery Trail: www.DiscoveryTrail.com.

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