Project Overview
Confluence | Cannon Center Interior Mezzanine
“Lindsey’s poem The Origin of Applause was the inspiration for the sculptural river designed by Smith. ”
Kay Lindsey and Dolph Smith collaborated with the Metal Museum to create Confluence. Lindsey’s poem The Origin of Applause was the inspiration for the sculptural river designed by Smith. The wall-mounted work was designed to flow in and out of the space and to interact with the anatomy of the building as performance is meant to interact with the stage and the audience.
About the Artists
Kay Lindsey
Kay Lindsey, formerly a Memphis, TN resident, was originally a painter. The heart of her work is poetry and much of it has been created in collaboration with artists in other disciplines. She began writing poetry in the sixties. Since then, her words have been etched into lamps, painted on ceramic sculpture, inscribed in clay tablets, penciled on gallery walls, performed with music, photo-montage, and floated out to sea in bottles. A native of Washington, D.C. and graduate of Howard University, she studied at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine and the Brooklyn Museum School in New York. Currently an expressive art therapist and art teacher, Kay is co-founder of a creativity workshop for educators.
Dolph Smith
Dolph Smith of Ripley, TN is Professor Emeritus after teaching at Memphis College of Art for 30 years. He works full time in his studio on Hurricane Hill creating mixed media works in paper, books, and small sculptures. He received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts and was profiled with nine Americans in the Penland Book of Handmade Books. Dolph Smith received the Governor's Distinguished Artist Award in the Arts at Nashville, 2011. His work is included in many collections nationally including the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Iowa, and Oberlin College, Ohio. An exhibition of Dolph Smith's artist books was recently showcased at the Brooks Museum of Art in 2017.
