INDIANAPOLIS, IN.- The Indiana State Museum announces the installation of This Means War
by Gary, Ind.-based artist Kay Rosen. The work, installed on the exterior of the museum building along the White River State Park Canal, is one of five public art installations included in the museums 200 Years of Indiana Art: A Cultural Legacy bicentennial art exhibition.
We are delighted to have Kay Rosens work represented in our bicentennial exhibition. Her text-based works have been exhibited in museums and institutions nationally and internationally for more than three decades and exemplify the breadth and depth of artistic talent associated with Indiana, said Mark Ruschman, chief fine arts curator at the museum. The inclusion of Rosens work and other public installation pieces reflect the popularity and value of the art form and demonstrate the broad scope of the 200 Years exhibition.
The artist has a background in applied linguistics and her artwork reflects her use of words in creating visually challenging images. Through the use of color, shape, placement and scale of simple words or phrases, Rosen draws attention to the relationship between language and meaning, creating engaging and sometimes challenging imagery. For the museums billboard installation, Rosens This Means War... is a simple one-word message arising from the urgent subject of global warming and the identical structure of the words warming and warning.
We carefully selected a wide variety of artworks that tell the story of Indiana artists over our 200 year history with the hope of sparking conversation. We expect Rosens piece to not only spark conversation, but encourage people to gather and return to it again and again, Ruschman added.
200 Years of Indiana Art features more than 100 two- and three-dimensional works of art displayed in various spaces on all three levels of the museum, including exterior museum grounds. The exhibition is included with museum admission. The public installations are on view free of charge.