Central College will welcome the works of Russ Nordman, professor of media arts at the University of Nebraska Omaha. The exhibit will run from Feb. 19 through March 12 in the Mills Gallery in the Lubbers Center for the Visual Arts.
Nordman’s work offers a fresh perspective on imagery that is quintessentially Iowan. A native of Charles City, Iowa, Nordman has traveled through all 99 Iowa counties photographing farm equipment and architecture. He manipulates his photographs into kaleidoscopic designs that resemble Eastern mandalas.
Nordman describes his fascination with the relationship between human and machine. “These objects need us to complete their function. Without us they sit idle. We are the consciousness of the machine. With this reconfiguration, the human component is taken out, but our vestiges still remain,” his artist statement reads.
Nordman’s visual reassembling of equipment, an everyday feature of the Midwest landscape, begs the viewer to contemplate what he describes as “a complex metaphysical relationship” between people and equipment.
His work has been exhibited across the country, including the California Museum of Photography, Des Moines Art Center and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts.
The public is invited to an artist talk and reception in the gallery at 5 p.m. Thursday, March 12. The Mills Gallery is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
