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Art Exhibition: Once in a blue moon twice
April 3, 2021
We are proud to present a premier exhibition, Once in a blue moon twice, by Dawn Kim, this year’s St. Elmo Arts Fellow. Visitors can explore Kim’s works amid the wildflowers and trees of the Center’s Woodland Garden to a soundtrack of birdsong and a gently flowing stream.
This exhibition is free with admission. Admission is always free for members!
Inspired? Dawn Kim will teach an original program, “Printing With the Sun: Cyanotypes Workshop,” on April 24. Register in advance, pick up your materials, and take the class from wherever you are via Zoom. Get details about this class and register here.
About the Exhibition
Once in a blue moon twice is St. Elmo Arts Fellow Dawn Kim’s response to a period of time defined by a string of unprecedented events. The site-specific installation is made of large-scale cyanotypes on fabric, hung from the rafters of an early pergola. Each sheet is composed of smaller, irregular cyanotype pieces, hand-stitched together with crimson thread. Deemed essential by Kim, objects that have been purchased, consumed or admired during the residency have been contact-printed on the fabric — from plant cuttings sourced at the Wildflower Center to a week’s worth of breakfast eggshells to the shed fur of her newly adopted dog, Blueberry Willy. Her photograms are as temperamental as Texas weather — some crisp and clearly distinguishable, others hazy and obscure. It is an unreliable inventory of her time in the Lone Star State.
About the Artist
Dawn Kim uses photography to examine the complex relationships between public and private spaces. Once in a blue moon twice marks the culmination of Kim’s yearlong residency as the St. Elmo Arts Fellow, an opportunity created in partnership between the Department of Art and Art History and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin. She graduated from Yale University in photography in 2020.
Materials List (work in progress)
Navel oranges, grown in California
Limes, grown in Mexico
Jars of spices (low on cumin, two of cinnamon)
Net of avocados, grown in Mexico
Compost from dinner (green onions and peeled carrots)
Glass jug from wholesale kombucha
Orange juice carafe, made from U.S. oranges
Dyson vacuum (Christmas splurge), imported from Malaysia
30-foot dog training leash, imported from China
Dog leash and harness, imported from China
Extension cord and power strip
A week’s worth of eggshells, from chickens in Gonzales, Texas
Skin of onions, grown in Texas
One day’s worth of Blueberry Willy’s fur
Italian parsley
Cilantro leaves
Celery
Cornstarch packing peanuts
Red potatoes
Banana peel
Slow cooker, imported from China
Hydrogen peroxide
Gelatin bottles
Eucalyptus (non-native)
Pressed dogwood from New Haven, Connecticut
Mexican feathergrass
Metal clamps, imported from Mexico
3-pound dumbbells
Seltzer cans
Coffee filters
Salt
Bottles of extracts (almond and vanilla)
Bottle of olive oil
Leaves of stargazer lilies (non-native)
Rice noodles packaging
Studio Crocs
