By
Shaun Clayton
Arizona Daily Wildcat
ASU Prof Alquist to hold question-and-answer session on his unique exhibit
Radiation powers nuclear reactors - and it is also art.
"Hot Art," an exhibit by Arizona State University art professor Lewis Alquist now showing at the UA Museum of Art, is literally "hot" - as in radioactive.
People should not start running from the museum or wearing lead underwear, though. The radioactivity is at a low enough level for it not to be harmful.
"The emissions are pretty low energy," Alquist said. "They don't even really penetrate the skin."
Still, the presence of radiation is enough to unsettle some people, Alquist said, because of the discomfort caused by the mysteriousness surrounding radioactivity.
"I think radiation is an interesting phenomenon because it's invisible and unsensible in our five senses," he said. "It's there, but we have no way of knowing it's there. I find an interest in making the invisible more visible."
Alquist's piece "Hot Lunch" consists of a Formica table that rocks from side to side, moving a small plate with a uranium-based glaze. As the plate approaches the edges of the table, Geiger counters detect the radiation and broadcast it over speakers in the dimly-lit room.
"Sleeping Mutation" is an emu egg perched atop a radioactive dinner plate with a Geiger counter pedestal that clicks constantly.
Finally, "Radioactive Tea Service (Circa 1939)" is a vintage orange Fiestaware tea set that rotates under a glass dome. A Geiger counter tells one that this is not a tea set to use at the next dinner party.
Still, using these radioactive pieces of dinnerware is exactly what some people in the past did, Alquist said. The radioactive dinnerware was manufactured in large numbers from the 1930s to the 50s when a uranium oxide glaze was put into ceramics to make the colors brighter and more vibrant.
"It was the most accessible radioactive item I could get," Alquist said. "You don't need a license for it. I really like the idea (of) how radioactivity is in such a mundane package. You don't need a guard to transport it from one place to another, it exists in people's houses there on the shelf."
Also in Alquist's exhibit at the museum is "Under the Sniperscope" - a binocular microscope that displays the panning image of a city-scape, created from a picture that Alquist took of New York City from the top of the Empire State Building. A rifle is mounted directly underneath the microscope.
"It's about the fear of being anywhere, in that case, a city, being watched," Alquist said. "It definitely focuses in ... on the role that a sniper plays in an urban landscape."
Alquist is no stranger to making art with political overtones. His 1997 piece, "The Perfect Crime," featured a portrait of then-governor Fife Symington that featured petroleum jelly on glass, casting shadows.
"There are certain events that affect my life and affect our lives in general that I feel necessary to comment on," Alquist said. "I did the one on Fife before he got indicted. It was funny. It had a kind of magic to it because you were actually looking at the shadow of the Vaseline on the wall, and there's all kinds of associations you can make to that."
Alquist will be at the UA Museum of Art today at 12:15 p.m. for a question-and-answer session relating to his work. The session is open to the public.
