Shawn
Bitters
Kansas City, MO
Bitters is a sculptor and associate professor in the Visual Arts Department at the University of Kansas, Lawrence, and holds an MFA in Printmaking from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). His work explores how we use language, narratives and belief structures to establish connections to our environment. For Open Spaces, Bitters has expanded his practice of fabricating printed ‘stones’ on two-dimensional surfaces and placed about 30 of them along the Limestone Glade Trail in Swope Park, where they form a narrative that can be ‘read’ by visitors moving through the landscape.
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Lake of the Woods at Swope Park
Viewing Hours:
Dawn to Dusk (6 a.m. - 9 p.m.)
Shawn Bitters
Burn Out
Medium: Aluminum and Ink
Download: Symbol Key
Taking a walk along a trail in the woods requires heightened attentiveness to what is unfolding around you. Shawn Bitters’ installation asks us to pay a different kind of attention, by distributing a few dozen simulated ‘rocks’ — in reality, painted metal fabrications — along a well-worn path, with many positioned to almost blend into their surroundings. On the surface of each rock a single word of a poem has been printed, so that one’s path through the woods might be enhanced by reading the poem as it gradually unfolds.
For Open Spaces, Bitters has expanded his practice of fabricating printed ‘stones’ on two-dimensional surfaces and placed about 30 of them along the Limestone Glade Trail in Swope Park, where they form a narrative that can be ‘read’ by visitors moving through the landscape.
Lake of the Woods at Swope Park
Viewing Hours:
Dawn to Dusk (6 a.m. - 9 p.m.)
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