(SCENE) Metrospace exhibit investigates art of words

Curators of a new East Lansing art exhibit hope to change the way people perceive art with their new exhibit “Word Play.”

A new exhibit at (SCENE) Metrospace, East Lansing’s alternative art space, explores the art of words, whether it be in the physical form of typography or in the spoken form through poetry. “Word Play” will be running Thursday through Sunday until Aug. 23 at (SCENE) Metrospace, 110 Charles St.

“It’s primarily based on letter press so it’s an exhibit that features letter-pressed artwork or artwork inspired by or containing text in some way,” (SCENE) Metrospace director Tim Lane said.

The exhibit features artists from as far as India and as close as MSU. Ben Gaydos, an artist and one of the curators for the show, is an 2002 MSU graduate who owns a design firm in Boston called goodgood. Gaydos, along with goodgood co-owner and fellow curator Karen Stein, created a 3-D interactive installation made out of cardboard letter forms and an installation made out of tissue paper.

“Our goal with these two projects is to create interactive pieces, that people could get interactive visually,” Gaydos said. “The cardboard letter forms people can move around and create new words in a 3-D space.”

Pieces include works from Virginia Commonwealth University, nationally known artist Ed Fella and Indian artist Kurnal Rawat. Lane said he likes to vary the types of artists featured in shows to attract different types of people to an exhibit.

“Having someone from home always helps,” Lane said. “We generally try to include a couple national artists and we also try to include some local favorites and some up-and-coming local artists as well.”

The art space is funded by the city of East Lansing and has a budget of $17,280, but brings in an offsetting revenue of $12,200, East Lansing Communications Coordinator Mikell Frey said.

Although the space does not create a profit, City Manager Ted Staton said (SCENE) Metrospace is important to the cultural growth of the city.

“The city does assist with funding the space in order to provide alternative arts and cultural enrichment to community members that is not readily found in many other locations throughout the region,” he said.

The funds cover six shows, each six weeks long. Lane curates the shows along with guest curators, which vary from traditional art shows to community submissions.

“We try to vary the shows as much as possible,” he said.