A home-repair essential meets interactive art in a new exhibit coming to Washington Park and CampSITE Sculpture Park.
The Art Academy of Cincinnati (AAC) has once again partnered with Duck Brand Duct Tape for an inventive art display. Blossoming of a New Era features 15 tape sculptures that range in size "from 6 feet to 10 feet," says Amanda Parker-Wolery, vice president of marketing at the AAC.
"Some you can interact with or crawl through," she tells CityBeat.
The life-size works — created by local artists, Summit Country Day Middle School students and the Art Academy's Duck Tape Studio Class — will be on view at Washington Park April 30-May 2 and CampSITE May 4-10.
"This exhibition is an opportunity to look at sculpture in a different way using a material that is accessible to all," says Joseph Girandola, president of the AAC, in a release.
Girandola is no stranger to Duct Tape art. In a 2013 CityBeat story, we reviewed his exhibit Rise and Fall: Monumental Duct Tape Drawings by Joe Girandola — on display when he was the new director of the MFA in Fine Arts program at the University of Cincinnati's College of Design, Art, Architecture and Planning. He began teaching Duct Tape art courses there and continued the practice when he took over the Art Academy in 2019.
Duck Brand Duct Tape — available in an entire panoply of colors outside the traditional silver — has become a go-to for DIYers and crafters (there's an entire craft and decor tab on the Duck Brand website). And Blossoming of a New Era will help viewers see the beauty in this industrial material.
"This class has taught me how to work with a material I usually wouldn't use and has helped me become a better creator," says Wyatt Rodgers, a sophomore at the AAC, in a release.
If you're inspired by the artists' work in Blossoming of a New Era, take a photo with all 15 sculptures and use the hashtags #artacademyofcincinnati and #theducktapebrand on social media to enter to win some free Duct Tape.
And, if you want to see more Duct Tape artworks, follow these sculptures to Avon, Ohio's Duck Tape Sculpture Scavenger Hunt, a COVID-friendly version of their typical annual Duck Tape Festival. (The company is headquartered in Avon.)
Blossoming of a New Era will be on display, for free, April 30–May 2 at Washington Park (1230 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine) and May 4–10 at CampSITE (2866 Colerain Ave., Camp Washington). For more info, visit artacademy.edu.
