Everyday stories of the local community will be presented in an unfamiliar way at The ArtsCenter tomorrow with the unveiling of UNC alumna Hannah Lamar Simmons’ work “The Paths I Trace Are The Stories You Tell.”
“This piece is all about unraveling and allowing stories to take up physical space,” Simmons said.
Simmons was always interested in more than just art while in school, said Cary Levine, an assistant art professor who taught Simmons while she was at UNC.
“A lot of what we discuss in class (is) cultural, political and social,” Levine said. “That really excited her.”
Simmons presented the installation for the first time in New York, where she now lives. More than a week ago, she teamed up with local community members in order to reinstall the work in the Chapel Hill area.
“I thought it would be important to me as an artist to bring (the use of newspapers) back to the community where I began working with this concept and material,” Simmons said.
Simmons, whose father is a journalist, said her interest in newspapers stems from childhood, when she would watch them being printed with him.
Each “path” of story lines has been cut out of local papers like The Carrboro Citizen, The Daily Tar Heel and Independent Weekly. Simmons plans on having the meshwork of related stories extend beyond the gallery and onto the pavement outside, she said.
“The lines of story trails are made to respond to indentations, nicks, dents,” Simmons said. “I don’t do any mapping out of this beforehand — it’s all responsive to the site.”
