Ackland Art Museum debuts new exhibition 'More Love'

Curators hope visitors will fall in love with the Ackland Art Museum’s newest exhibit.

“More Love: Art, Politics and Sharing since the 1990s,” opens today and invites visitors to contribute their experiences of love to the contemporary artwork.

“It’s really a social justice exhibition that connects with love,” said Claire Schneider, consulting curator for the Ackland.

The show’s 33 artists and their 52 works aim to encourage discussion. This is especially true for participatory works, including “Untitled (Ross in L.A.),” by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, who Schneider likens to Andy Warhol.

“Untitled” is comprised of one 175-pound pile of candy meant to shrink in size as visitors consume them.

Other works include Yoko Ono’s “Time to Tell Your Love,” which asks visitors to physically demonstrate their love, of which a photograph will be taken and displayed.

Another work asks visitors to describe their first love to a forensic sketch artist.

But the show is concerned with all types of love, not just romantic.

“It’s wanting to understand love in a way that’s not just Hollywood or pop songs or Hallmark cards,” Schneider said.

She said she strived to create an exhibit that investigated how people understand the world and its changes as a result of technology, global capitalism, gender and sexual policy.

One such political work is Julianne Swartz’s “Affirmations,” which utilizes voice as an extension of touch.

“Love is a political force,” Swartz said. “Che Guevara said, ‘A true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.’ One can’t confront that without addressing topics of essential human respect and rights.”

Gregory Sale’s work, titled “Love for Love,” includes 10,000 metal buttons — intended for visitors to take — imprinted with love-inspired words by people not usually heard in the community, such as the homeless and imprisoned.

Sale said he hopes to instigate dialogue, awareness and tolerance.

“In a bigger way, it underscores and supports the love that’s in the community already,” Sale said.

Schneider said she hopes visitors will come with an open mind.

“The show isn’t complete unless people come view it,” she said.

Emily Bowles, Ackland’s director of communications, said there is no right way to interpret “More Love,” but thinks everyone will be able to relate to what she calls a powerhouse exhibit.

“Love is such a human emotion that I can’t imagine there would be someone who wasn’t touched in some way,” she said.

Contact the desk editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.