For more information:

Ryan McCullough, 508-685-0182

Shon Walters, 937-559-7810

Kristen Wicker, 937-224-1518, ext. 228

Artist Explores How Sensory Deprivation Affects the Creative Experience During Residency in Oregon Arts District Gallery

Artist becomes the concept he aims to examine during 21-day performance art exhibition.

Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 20, 2008 ― If much art is about exploring our senses, what happens when an artist seeks to explore sensory deprivation?

Sculptor and painter Ryan McCullough will do just that when he returns to his home state of Ohio to undertake a three-week performance art piece at Goloka gallery, 523 E. Fifth St. in the Oregon Arts District. In the premiere of this multimedia exhibit, he will seek to discover the space where sensory deprivation, identity and social expression intersect by becoming the very concept his art aims to examine.

“A lot of my performance work involves placing myself in a physical condition,” McCullough said. “This allows me to embody the psychology of the piece in an honest way that’s not acting.”

The experience will begin during the next First Friday downtown art hop at 5 p.m. Nov. 7, when a sensory-deprived McCullough ― outfitted with industrial earplugs and his eyes covered ― will be encased in one of his sculptures. First, though, the Goloka space will be ritualized during a performance to include a “primitive opera” McCullough co-wrote with a New England composer. Six large paintings and supplemental drawings, as well as four films, by McCullough also will be on display in the exhibition, “Approaching Metronome.”

Once inside the sculpture, McCullough will create drawings and other art. After living in the sculpture for approximately five days, sustained by dried foods and bottled water, he’ll emerge and ― sensory deprivation intact ― create art on the walls of Goloka gallery. All the art will be a visual representation of McCullough’s experiences in his quiet darkness. This will continue for 21 days, the gestation period for an egg from the time it’s laid until it hatches.

“When something hatches, it gains identity,” said McCullough, who grew up on a farm near Springfield and now lives in the Cape Cod area. “Conceptually, it made sense for me to go back to my hometown area for my first performance of this piece because so much of it is an examination of identity.”

McCullough studied fine art at Wright State University and created art in the Dayton area for nearly a decade. Three years ago, he moved to Chatham, Mass., where he continues to use elements of printmaking, sculpture and performance in his work, now flavored by his New England experience.

For more on the Oregon Arts District, visit www.oregonartsdistrict.com. For more on artist Ryan McCullough, visit www.ryanmcculloughart.com.

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