“Introspection”

WHO: The 14th Nashua International Sculpture Symposium, with three invited artists this year from around the U.S., who, together, will each create a sculpture; the three will complement one another and be placed together in one location

WHAT: “Introspection,” the 14th Annual International Sculpture Symposium

WHERE: Two locations:

· The Picker Artists Studios, 3 Pine St., Nashua, N.H. which is the studio/worksite,

· 6 Church Street, Nashua, N.H. for the opening ceremony, closing ceremony and site of the new sculptures to be placed together

WHEN: May 20, 2021 - June 12, 2021, with work times of 10-4 Monday through Saturday from May 24-June 8, 2021 at the studio/worksite.

· The opening ceremony is Thurs., May 20, 2021 at 5:30 p.m., and the closing ceremony is on Sat., June 12, 2021 at 1 p.m., both to be streamed on Access Nashua Community Television, Channel 96 and viewable following the event, with time(s) to be announced, and the programming to be rebroadcast several times during the duration of the Symposium. It will also be available on NISS’s Facebook page and the NISS YouTube channel.

· An artists talk during the first week of the Symposium and special activities for children, both to be held outdoors, are being planned, with more information to follow on exact dates and times.

· Ongoing now through the end of May, NISS is holding its "1,000 Cranes for Nashua" project. NISS intends to have 1,000 paper cranes made which will be on display at St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua. To participate, come to the Picker Artists studios to pick up prepared kits, return completed cranes there. Details of how to participate are on the NISS website and social media (all listed below) including a fun video on folding cranes.

The “Introspection” theme:

The theme for this year’s Symposium comes from the fact that the artists, like so many other people, have had to be largely be isolated from others during the pandemic. Artists, even if they do work alone, usually have a chance to show and exhibit their work and converse with others but not during the pandemic. The Symposium will bring people out and back together to interact. The artists will be working near one another and be able to confer together and look at one others’ work.

For some of the artists, this will be a new experience of working on a piece of art outside and in public, as though they are on a stage, which the studio setting will resemble; in addition to the new experience for some of the artists of developing a large scale piece of sculpture to be displayed in public.

With this theme, the Symposium is contextualizing the thought processes of the artists from the past year with that isolated condition and then presenting their work with that context to the public for the first time in over a year. Artistic Director Jim Larson said, “These are almost necessarily ideas of introspection that came about while workingalone during the past year. The symposium is a chance for these three artists to take these ideas and reframe them within the public realm.”

Even the tools may be different for some of the artists for this project. In fact, Larson and at least one of the artists will be building a diamond wire saw to use during the Symposium. He explained that the braided steelcable will be beaded with diamond beads and will be able to cut stone in the same way a bandsaw cuts wood. This is usually a very expensive machine. The diamond wire saw itself is just another tool, but what it does and says about public art is what is so significant. “A machine like this is usually inaccessible to the humble artist. To have this available to the artists allows them to speak with a wider vocabulary of action, and to make more efficient use of their time, energy and enthusiasm. Ultimately, they can make work that more easilyfollows their intuition and intention,” Larson said.

He is grateful to donors for providing the means to build this machine. Larson noted, “The generosity of ourdonors says, ‘I think this is worth my time, investment, and my money towards my community.’ With their support they say, public art is worth it.”

And, he added, “Through theongoing andinnovative practice of working stone, the Symposium preserves and builds uponthe living history of stonework in New Hampshire.”

The 2021 Symposium artists:

Gavin Kenyon, born in 1980 in Binghamton, N.Y., lives and works in New York. He is represented by Galleria Zero, in Milan. Mass, tension, balance, membranes, surface quality and color. Working at the limits of materials with an attention to how matter behaves under stress. Finding equilibrium in failure. The abject position. These strategies and elements are used in Kenyon’s sculptures to speak of the frailty of bodies, loss, isolation and psychological repression on one hand as well as connection, care and the tenacity of life on the other.

Nora Valdez is originally from Argentina, now based in Boston, Mass. She has lived in, created and exhibited her work in Argentina, Italy and in Spain before moving to Boston in 1986. Her work has been exhibited and installed in permanent public spaces all over the world, from Europe to Asia, around North and South America, and in the U.S. She uses sculpture and installations to create images that reflect on the nature of change. Most recently, her work has focused on the nature of home and the immigrant experience. Her thematic concerns are also reflected in her involvement with the community.

Sam Finkelstein is based in Rockland, Maine and was born in New York City. His work centers on the human body as the link between the psychic states of ever-accelerating metropolitan centers and those of more time-expansive pastoral landscapes. This exploration manifests in sculpted stone, poetry, drawings, and music. Finkelstein is interested in his work primarily registering on a nonverbal level – something rooted in a primordial, energetic collective knowledge that we share with plants, trees, fellow animals, and the heavenly bodies of the cosmos.

Jim Larson, Artistic Director, Nashua International Sculpture Symposium, born in 1994, and a New Hampshire native from Contoocook, is an interdisciplinary artist. His work seeks to explore and expand methods of art creation and presentation. With a background in New Hampshire's tradition of craft, his work synthesizes the handmade/the real with our contemporary digital cultural practice. Larson's work objectifies our daily digital-to-physical, physical-to-digital translations, and he works to present a more broadly accessible version of art exhibition. Alongside his artistic practice, Larson regularly organizes public showings of artwork to provide exposure for young artists within their local communities. These shows attempt to present work outside the influence of for-profit initiatives, and correspondingly they contain work that likely would not be shown in a for-profit setting. This is his third year as Artistic Director of NISS.

About the Symposium:

Since 2008, The Nashua International Sculpture Symposium has presented an annual multiweek spring sculpture-making event in the city of Nashua, N.H.Artists are invited from around the world to take part. They spend three weeks in Nashua creating public art that now, after 14 years, join several dozen unique pieces placed throughout the city in public and outdoor places and spaces for everyone to enjoy.

Residents also can get involved in the symposium by volunteering to host the artists, helping to provide meals and transportation, and spending time with the artists as they work. The artists learn how to create large-scale sculpture pieces, and they, while making their art and interacting with visitors and the public, educate them about their own artmaking techniques, their cultures and their backgrounds.

Nashua is the only city in the U.S. to host such a symposium that brings appreciation and awareness to the value and benefit of free, public art. Nashua is committed to such publicly accessible art and the city is becoming known for not only these compelling sculptures, but for other kinds of public art as well, including many kinds of murals. The idea of the Symposium was inspired by Meri Goyette, now 95, and a major patron of the arts and culture in Nashua, and John Weidman, director of the Andres Institute of Art in Brookline, N.H.

Sculptors are selected to participate in the Symposium for their ability to positively contribute to the artistic and cultural development of Nashua with the goal to improve the quality of life throughout the city for residents and visitors.

Because of the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, NISS has switched gears and has been working with artists from around North America.The sculptors will work outdoors Mondays through Saturdays from 10-4 at The Picker Artists Studios, 3 Pine Street, Nashua.

The public is invited to participate by bringing a meal, by volunteering at the site, or simply by coming by to watch them work and keep them company as they work between May 24 and June 8, 2021. When visiting, it is important to stay back from the artists, not only because of the machinery and tools in use, along with the dust and particles from the stonecutting, but to continue to comply with pandemic protocols, including wearing masks and practicing physical distancing as needed.

For more information and to see a comprehensive images and locations of all past sculptures, information on sponsoring a sculpture, how to help provide meals and more:

NISS: http://www.NashuaSculptureSymposium.org

Access Nashua Community Television/Channel 96: http://www.accessnashua.orgfor viewing schedule and streaming

For sale during the Symposium:

· Limited edition 14thAnniversary “Introspection” t-shirts

· “Art Lives” cotton tote bags in two styles

See the NISS website and social media for information on ordering.

Proceeds help the Symposium obtain needed materials and tools, and aid its plans to expand artmaking opportunities for children of all ages throughout the year.

NISS on social media:

NISS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/NashuaSculptures

NISS Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/nashuasculpturesymposium/

NISS YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ4B36szGxtMiuHs3PPfcYA/videos

NISS LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/NashuaSculptures