Q&A With Stacey Holloway About “Othernesses” Exhibit at Central Library
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| Stacey Holloway, creator of the "Othernesses" display at entrance of the Central Library downtown. |
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Birmingham, Ala. - If you are intrigued by animal sculptures and other creative art, you have two more weeks to visit the Birmingham Public Library downtown and view Stacey Holloway: Othernesses, an art exhibit on display through March 29 on the first floor of the Central Library.
Othernesses and Misty Bennett: Candy Crush are the most recent installments of the BPL’s Art for Everyone series. Both exhibitions were made possible by a grant from the Alabama State Council on the Arts. The grant was awarded to the Friends Foundation of the Birmingham Public Library to benefit the library.
An Associate Professor of Sculpture at University of Alabama at Birmingham, Stacey Holloway received her MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2009, her BFA from Herron School of Art and Design/IUPUI in 2006, and has been living and working in Birmingham since 2013. In addition to teaching, Holloway is an active national mixed media artist, sculptor, and fabricator who works within a variety of media including drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, and interactivity.
Through the exploration of storytelling and ethology, she creates work that communicates a universal societal connectivity. See more of Stacey Holloway’s work at staceyholloway.com and on Instagram @hollowspace. Artwork in this exhibition is available for purchase, and the artist receives 100% of each sale. For sales information, contact the artist at stacey@staceyholloway.com.
Stacey Holloway: Othernesses may be viewed during regular business hours at the Central Library through March 29, 2024. The Central Library is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., with extended hours until 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday.
In a Q&A with BPL Public Relations Director Roy Williams, Stacey Holloway talked about what inspired her imaginative sculptures of animals and other unique creations in a display she calls Othernesses.
BPL: The name of your exhibition, Othernesses, is interesting. What inspired the name?
Holloway: The title of the exhibition, Othernesses, illustrates that we all have an innate desire to belong and to love, which helps us form intimate relationships and strong emotional connections.
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| "Hung Out to Dry" - Cast plastic, vintage handkerchiefs, and mixed media, 2021 |
BPL: Describe what inspired each piece on display in the glass cases on the first floor of the Central Library. Let's start with Hung Out to Dry, the installation of handkerchiefs you see upon entering the library from the parking lot.
Holloway: Hung Out to Dry is an installation where I employed various vintage handkerchiefs that I have been collecting for about 10 years. Some are from my family heirlooms and others were abandoned and collected from garage sales and thrift stores. I first saw many of these hanging in my mother’s laundry room after we downsized my grandmother’s belongings and I thought they looked a lot like hanging bats.
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| "Working Hands Series (A Ton of Bricks, Cup of Tea, Home Sweet Home, Cut Loose) - Cast plastic and mixed media, 2021-2022 |
BPL: Describe the second case.
Holloway: Working hands is a series of work that represents the women in my family and their influence on me as I become who I am today.
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| Meerkat, Otter, Fawn, Rabbit - Cast plastic and mixed media, 2023 |
BPL: Describe the third case, the one with the mounted animal heads.
Holloway: On Display is a series of mounted animal heads that speak on the different characters that one encounters as they progress in their lives.
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| Digital Mixed Media Drawings (The Newcomer, Sitting Pretty) Digital engraving and suede flocking, 2017. Goodbye’s too Good a Word -Cast iron and wood, 2023 |
BPL: Describe the fourth and final case in the display.
Holloway: The digital mixed media drawings illustrate how one might feel when being introduced into a new environment.
Goodbye’s too Good a Word is an installation that portrays a cast iron fawn inspecting a lost extremity after it has been renewed with a decorative prosthetic.
The fawn, being made of an industrial material, has lost a piece of himself that is rusted and seen as deteriorating. This piece represents that our past mistakes and lives can aid us in rebuilding who it is that we strive to become.
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