The exhibition entitled Subterrain (Yellow Column Field) is one of a series of site responsive installations which examines how hexagonal units might be used in the design of an architectural space. What appears to be a field of columns is actually a configuration of lightweight ballistic nylon forms hung from aircraft cable. In each column six convex curves connect to create an overhead canopy, a seamless roof. Buster sees these columns as downward extrusions from an irregular hexagonal grid and says, "This seamlessness is only possible through the kind of tight packing unique to hexagonal cells."
Subterrain also refers to the sense of being below ground. Though the hexagonal grid informs and indeed is necessary to the shape and configuration of the columns and seamless ceiling, it remains invisible. Moving through the yellow columns one is in the subterranean region of an imagined architecture.
"Once penetrated an architectural structure embraces, contains, shelters, frames, and even controls a human body. In this and other projects I am engaged in exploring this notion by constructing sculptures that operate as sites of enclosure and by investigating how biological forms might be employed in their design. A field of like units allow for multiple viewpoints and a sense of growth in successive stages. This column field is a single stage in a potentially open system, a fragment of what could be an infinitely larger whole. " said Buster
Kendall Buster studied microbiology and received a BS degree in Medical Technology before pursuing an education in art. She earned a BFA from the Corcoran College of Art and Design and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University as well as participating in the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Studio Program in New York City. Buster's large-scale "biological architecture" sculpture projects have been exhibited in numerous venues including the Hirshhorn Museum and the Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC, Artist's Space in New York City, the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee, the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, the Bahnhof Westend in Berlin, and the KZNSA Gallery in Durban, South Africa.
"We are very pleased to be hosting an installation by such a renowned sculpture artist at VCUQ Gallery. Kendall Buster's work is extraordinary and challenging for the viewer." noted Dr. J. Sokoly VCUQ Gallery Director and Assistant Professor in Art History.
