Felicia LeRoy & Carolyn Spears

media release: ABSOLUTE ZERO - Art Exhibition by Felicia LeRoy & Carolyn Spears

“Absolute zero” refers to the basis of the Kelvin temperature scale—the theoretical extreme of the lowest temperature possible. This exhibition features Felicia LeRoy and Carolyn Spears. Their expertise in some of the hottest material on earth is paired with their subject matter, which addresses extremes in human and geological experiences via the glass-like substance of ice.

LeRoy’s works are often elemental in nature, often using glass to mimic water or ice. Her body is also employed as an index of breath—both via its limitations in water, and thus an expanded notion of body as breath as wind, as in her work “body / air.”

Spears’ work is an investigation of time, materials, and mortality. In her work, ice—and its ability to transform, fracture, obfuscate, record, and vanish—demonstrates the precarity of existence. It represents the inevitability of losing time. Ice operates as a metaphor for grief, asking viewers to contend with their impermanence by calling into question natural phenomena that shape existence.

This exhibition will be open in the Main Gallery of Memorial Union from September 29 to November 17 of 2023. Galleries are open from 8am - 10pm, Monday through Sunday.