San Marcos,
27
August
2014
|
08:48 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Exhibit at San Diego International Airport Features CSUSM Artist’s Work

By Margaret Chantung

During the upcoming fall and winter travel seasons, passengers with time to spare before boarding their flights or upon their arrival in San Diego can reflect and take in some art by California State University San Marcos (CSUSM) Professor of Visual Arts Judit Hersko, now on display in Terminal 2 at the San Diego International Airport through the end of the year. Hersko’s exhibit “Seven Days of Dissolution” is a part of a new collective exhibition,“Converg(Ing)enuities,” curated by the airport’s art program, featuring 12 different artists inspired by the creative intersection of art, science and technology.

Hersko’s “Seven Days of Dissolution” is based on research by Dr. Victoria Fabry, a fellow CSUSM professor and biological oceanographer, who studies ocean acidification, the term given to the chemical changes in the ocean that result from carbon dioxide emissions: one of the most worrisome aspects of man-made climate change.

The exhibit features seven 12-by-12-inch acrylic tanks containing water and black sea fans, a horny coral with a vertical treelike skeleton. On the sea fans Hersko crafted sculptures of a human heart and lung constructed from capiz shells. As viewers walk from left to right, they find the heart and lung gradually dissolving and disappearing until the sea fan is empty in the last tank, demonstrating the process of shell dissolution which occurs as a result of declining PH levels in the ocean.

“It’s a real honor to be selected by the San Diego International Airport’s Art Advisory Committee,” said Hersko. “And it’s an honor to have my work on public display.”

Passengers may view “Seven Days of Dissolution” in the West End Gallery, located past the security checkpoint in Terminal 2, between gates 48 and 49, where approximately 17,000 people pass through daily.

For more information about the San Diego International Airport’s Art Program, visit: www.art.san.org.