Open Gallery | Untitled

In the lobby of our Raleigh, NC office, we have what we call The Open Gallery, which features a rotating series of exhibits for associates, visitors, and the local community. Installations are chosen for their relevance to openness, collaboration, and community—all hallmarks of our open source roots. We work with different organizations and artist collectives in Raleigh to bring new artwork to the public every 6 months or so.

For this installation we partnered with Sarah West and Artspace.

West’s work resides at the intersection of jewelry and sculpture. She holds a BFA in Metal Design, Magna Cum Laude, from East Carolina University and a certificate in Jewelry Making and Repair from North Bennet Street School. She is the recipient of a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship Craft Grant. Currently, Sarah maintains a studio space at Artspace in Raleigh, NC.

Artspace is a non-profit visual arts center inspiring innovation through opportunities to experience the creative process and engage with artists. Artspace encourages community participation in the visual arts through our exhibitions, open studios, artist residencies and art education classes for all ages.

West’s piece, Untitled, was created with 14 gauge round steel wire brazed together to form two gramophone/trumpet shapes. The trumpet forms are connected from the end points with a rope, as if they are permanently connected in conversation with each other, reminiscent of toy telephones made of tin cans and string. The trumpets have a map of Raleigh transposed onto the walls to create an open lattice of line work. Red vinyl LPs are interspersed within the steel framework. It all evokes the growth of an intertwined, interconnected community, strengthened by collaborative interactions.

"My works are maps of the places we have been in our lives, in our dreams as well as where we are going in the future. My work expresses our embodied fragility and strength. I am interested in how we impress upon our surroundings and how they impress upon us. Like the power lines that intersect the horizon, my pieces are architectural structures that interact with the landscape of the body."