Memphis Mobile
Memphis Mobile, a temporary public sculpture designed by Khara Woods, will be installed at Health Sciences Park this May and remain on view through summer of 2021. The sculpture will suspend from three mature willow oak trees near the park's pavilion at Madison and Dunlap Streets. Local art production studio, Youngblood Studio, collaborated on the fabrication and installation of the piece.
Artist Khara Woods writes:
Italian designer Ettore Sottsass named the Memphis design movement after a Bob Dylan song “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”. This suspended sculpture represents my interpretation on this post-modern movement using a variety of acrylic geometric shapes, some solid and some decorated with patterns, arranged at different heights to add rhythm and enhance the lighthearted nature of this work. I hope this lively motif will give Medical District students, employees, community members, and passersby something playful to set their eyes on and make their faces beam. Many of the shapes will be wrapped in a color-shifting dichroic film. I anticipate the reflection from the iridescent shapes on the ground will add another dimension of play to this piece.
Khara Wood’s studio is located at Marshall Arts in the Edge District, just a few blocks from Health Sciences Park.
Memphis Mobile was commissioned by MMDC as part of their commitment to placemaking and improvement of public spaces in the Memphis Medical District.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Khara Woods is a graphic designer and artist from Memphis, Tennessee. Her work is largely inspired by geometric abstraction and pop art. Since 2015, she has created and collaborated on a number of murals and public art projects in Memphis, TN. Her latest murals and light installation can be seen at Cornelia Crenshaw Library in South City.