Cynthia Minet's Unsustainable Creatures

Sculptures of Plastic and Light

Culver Center of the Arts

November 23 - December 29, 2012

Cynthia Minet's Unsustainable Creatures is a new installation of sculptures for the Culver Center for the Arts atrium space. Part of an ongoing project of illuminated life-size sculptures of domesticated animals, a pair of oxen and a camel are made from repurposed and recycled plastic objects, containers and toys. Lit from within by custom LEDs, the pieces relate in a site-specific way to the Culver Center building's former life as a department store. Displaying different qualities by day and by night, the sculptures will change under the skylight of the atrium. At night, they glow with a life force that escapes our landfills; by day, their materials of construction are fore-grounded, and identifiable. The bright plastic colors of the works add humor to their underlying critique of consumerism and disposable culture. Their postures capture these animals in moments of struggle, caught in the cycle of work and toil: a cycle that allows for more buying, and more throwing away. Additionally, the Unsustainable Creatures, as human surrogates, point to humankind's dependence on electricity and petrochemicals, and question whether ultimately we will evolve to become the materials that we can't do without. Cynthia Minet's Unsustainable Creatures: Sculptures of Plastic and Light is organized by UCR ARTSblock, and curated by Tyler Stallings, Artistic Director, Culver Center of the Arts & Director, Sweeney Art Gallery, University of California, Riverside.

Cynthia Minet's mixed media sculptures, drawings and installations combine an interest in scientific and ecological issues with an investigation of materials. Her artworks have been exhibited both in the USA and internationally. Most recently, several of her illuminated sculptures, the "Unsustainable Creatures" have been displayed at the Huntington Beach Art Center, the Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles, and at GATE Projects, Glendale. International group exhibitions include a collateral event of the Venice Biennale (2009), and museum shows in Minsk, Belarus, Amelia, Italy and in several venues in Israel. Additionally, Minet has participated in two international artist residencies: in Denmark and in the Netherlands. Her work is in the collections of the Artists' Museum, Tel Aviv, Special Collections at Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, CA, and the Bell Gallery Collection, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island. The next manifestation of the Unsustainable Creatures series will be on view at LAX in packing (caravan), a project funded by Los Angeles World Airports and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, 2013.