Gina Bigelow (516) 299-2332 sends:

Paul Villinski: Air Chair May 29 – July 3, 2007 Opening Reception with the Artist – Thursday, May 31, 5 to 8 p.m.

Brookville, NY – Paul Villinski: Air Chair is an installation in Hillwood Art Museum’s curved gallery by New York City based sculptor Paul Vilinski. The exhibition is comprised of a single sculpture with allusions to two seemingly disparate ideas; paralysis and flight.

Air Chair, a construction of a discarded wheelchair and a detailed flying machine with working parts, floats above the gallery floor causing the viewer to wonder, “Does this thing really fly?” Mr. Villinski writes that the inspiration for Air Chair was a result of his running route in Long Island City that takes him past two VA Hospitals located on Roosevelt Island, which are home to many disabled, wheelchair-bound men who often pass the time at the riverside, along his course. Mr. Villinski talks about the origins of the project, “The irony of running for pleasure past dozens of men no longer able to walk is never lost on me. Seeing these men year after year started me thinking about wheelchairs, and I began to ponder what I would want, were I confined to a chair by disability or old age. I knew at once it would need to be capable of getting airborne. If I were to lose use of my legs, I would want to trade them for wings.”

This dramatic installation is reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine drawings and calls to mind the profound release of silent flight. Air Chair is Mr. Villinski’s “gift to the Veterans at Roosevelt Island, and to all of us who believe that life’s challenges can be met with hope, imagination, determination, and grace.”

Admission to Hillwood Art Museum is free and open to the public. Museum hours are Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Hillwood Art Museum is located on the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, 720 Northern Boulevard (Route 25A), Brookville. The Museum has ample free parking and is handicap accessible. For more information, call (516) 299-4073 or visit www.liu.edu/museum.

Discuss Air Chair at the Oz Report forum
   
 
 
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