Two Atlanta Exhibitions Stretch the Definition of Sculpture With Beads, Wire and Paper

Two Atlanta art exhibitions are asking visitors to broaden their idea of sculpture, approaching the question from different directions. One is on view in the West End now, and the other opens Friday in Downtown Atlanta.

At Hammonds House Museum, "NU AFRICANS" presents the work of sculptor Grace Kisa, both as standalone art and as adornment for the body. The exhibition features Kisa's costume pieces displayed on mannequins, along with a wall of headpieces. At first glance the headpieces read as hairstyles, but up close they resemble shields and crowns.

Portraits by Maurice Evans, Kisa's collaborator, show how the pieces are worn. Before Kisa sculpted a single costume, she studied women warriors alongside Evans. She then drew on that research to work beads, yarn and wire into adornment.

Downtown, Gallery 100 will open "Pumped UP," a solo show by Eileen Braun, on Friday. The exhibition gathers roughly 20 works made from materials that include dressmaker's pattern tissue, baling twine, construction-grade rubber and gold gilding foil.

Braun's hands do much of the work. She cuts the tissue into strips, knots them end to end and knits them with her fingers. Much of her material is salvage, including twine picked up off a feed-store floor.

Every piece in the show begins with a sketch, according to the account of her process. After that, the work takes over, dictating where she goes and which color comes next. Even the fragile paper, the account says, sets its own rules.

Both bodies of work carry meaning beyond their materials. In Kisa's case, that meaning is a memory of home. In Braun's, it is the unseen hands that the materials passed through before reaching her.

The two shows offer a pairing for gallery-goers this week: one rooted in costume and the body, the other in salvaged, hand-worked everyday materials.