What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/1448331
BECCA MARTIN-BROWN NWA Democrat-Gazette A aron R. Turner uses photography as a transformative process to understand the ideas of home and resilience in two main areas of the U.S., the Arkansas and Mississippi deltas. But in his exhibit "Yesterday Once More," on show through April 3 at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, he's also selected books related to his subject and his inspirations that will be available for patrons to review in the space, and he has curated a playlist that can be accessed via a smartphone while visiting the exhibition. "A lot of times people move through an exhibition quickly," Turner says, "but by providing curated music and books, I hope to encourage people to stay in the space for an extended, immersive experience. Even though the exhibition contains all photography, it's really not about photography, but more so about the way in which we all move through time and have shared experiences." Turner received his M.A. from Ohio University and an M.F.A from Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and is now an assistant professor in the School of Art at the University of Arkansas. He received a 2021 Houston Center for Photography Fellowship and a 2020 Artist 360 Mid-America Arts Alliance Grant, among other honors. Turner took time to answer four questions for What's Up! Answers have been edited for space. Q. Where did you grow up? What was your family like? What was your everyday life like? A. I grew up in the Arkansas Delta, right on the edge of it if you consider a specific geographical location, in West Memphis, Ark. The area is close to Memphis, Tenn., and northern West Mississippi, so I spent a lot of time in those areas. My family was similar to a lot of people in that area. Both my parents worked, and economically we were somewhere in the middle; my mom worked in the medical field on the admin side of things, and my dad was an architect with his small firm out of Memphis. He worked all over Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi. FAQ Aaron R. Turner: 'Yesterday Once More' WHEN — Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. through April 3; the gallery is also open 90 minutes prior to perfor- mances and during inter- mission WHERE — Joy Pratt Markham Gallery at the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville COST — Free INFO — 443-5600, waltonartscenter.org FYI — All patrons will be required to wear a mask while inside Walton Arts Center. Aaron R. Turner 8 WHAT'S UP! FEBRUARY 6-12, 2022 FEATURE Pictures Worth 1,000 Words Artist adds books, music to his exhibition "One photograph in the exhibition that I want everyone to see is my mother's large inkjet cotton fabric print," Turner says. "It just really shows my thoughts on time and how things unfold. It depicts my mother for maybe an hour or so, maybe less, of her facial expressions, the sunlight change all in one location. I just like the way it observes time, it finds meaning in a small mundane moment, and a large part of our lives are small and ordinary." (Courtesy Image/Aaron R. Turner)