8 minute read
ARTS & CULTURE IN KC
Hasna Sal
THE ARCHITECT AND GLASS ARTIST ANSWERS FOUR QUESTIONS
by Judith Fertig photo by Carol Bliss
When travelers walk through the new Kansas City airport, they will soon come upon a marvelous 20-foot wall of glass from artist Hasna Sal. “Kansas City is not any average Midwest city,” says Sal. “It is cutting-edge; and I am proud to be part of its community.”
A native of Kochi, a port city on the Malabar Coast of India, Sal’s restless spirit led her to study journalism in London and architecture in Boston with post-grad at Harvard. She has taught architectural engineering at the University of Kansas. Sal’s glass jewelry sparkled down the fashion runway as part of designer Archana Kochhar’s collection for New York Fashion Week. Now a resident of Overland Park, the well-traveled Sal founded her company Glass Concepts 360 in Olathe.
With installations in restaurants in Lawrence and Topeka, Truman Medical Center in Kansas City, and a Nativity Triptych in Lawrence, Sal also has a permanent exterior installation going up in March at Independence Plaza Park funded by a grant from
Northeast Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, and another by the Kansas City Museum. glassconcepts360.com
INKC: You’ve recently been commissioned to do a 20-foot glass wall at the new Kansas City International airport. What can you tell us about it? Sal: The theme is “extraordinary in the ordinary.” It’s a series of ten painted-glass panels, illustrating the momentous simplicities of Midwestern life. It celebrates the unity, diversity, and versatility of our lively communities, rooted in land, vegetation, wildlife, and seasons. It’s an explosion of color that communicates emotions, relationships, and connections, both transient and permanent.
INKC: You’ve written Poems in Glass, a memoir. How does your past influence the present work that you do? Sal: The past is always in the present. As an architect, I am trained in building materials, spatial planning, programmatic needs, site analysis, client communications, structural design, etc. This applies to everything I do—whether it is writing a book, making wearable sculpture, or large public art installations. Architecture is not a profession, it is a way of life, and it disciplines you to be process oriented, not product oriented. Process involves identification, connection, communication, introspection, meditation, conceptualization, design development, budgeting, and construction. These disciplines apply to life in general. It’s about structuring the mind a certain way; it’s about disciplining one’s approach to creative place-making.
INKC: Why select glass as a medium for your art? Sal: While pursuing my five-year professional degree program in architecture in Boston, Massachusetts, I studied glass for my architectural materials elective. I continued with it in my final year. I thought I would specialize in glass buildings in professional practice. But in Kansas, there wasn’t much opportunity for that. When I went back to Cambridge to pursue my post-grad studies at Harvard in landscape architecture, I presented in glass. My professors said I had created a benchmark for Harvard. That’s why I decided to pursue glass full time and started my business Glass Concepts 360.
INKC: How has Kansas City nurtured your creative spirit? Sal: Kansas City has been very welcoming to me as an immigrant and nurtures my ideas and vision that I bring from my years of training as an architect and artist from Massachusetts and the United Kingdom respectively. An example of this is when I wanted to create the first exterior memorial in the nation for victims of human trafficking, all the local agencies I approached—Habitat for Humanity, Kansas City Parks and Recreation, Lykins Neighborhood Association, Art Commission of Kansas City, St. Michael the Archangel in Leawood, Rotary Club—all supported the project wholeheartedly. The glass memorial is in Lykins Park.
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WICKED: THE MUSICAL
TAKE A KANSAS GIRL named Dorothy and her dog Toto, a tornado, a pair of ruby slippers, a scarecrow and his buddies, plus good and bad witches. Shake them all up, put the bad witch in charge, and you’ve got the makings of Wicked, a Broadway musical rst performed in 2003.
A Broadway Series production of the American eatre Guild, Wicked looks at another girl newly arrived in Oz, pre-Dorothy. is girl has green skin, a sharp intellect, and a ery temperament. She befriends a bubbly blonde with a sweet voice. One goes on to be dubbed Wicked, the other Good. And in the tradition of musicals such as South Paci c exploring prejudice, this one takes judging a book by its cover into familiar yet new territory.
At this time, all patrons are required to wear masks while inside the Music Hall throughout the duration of each Broadway performance, regardless of age and/or vaccination status. But check before you go.
Performances are January 5 through 23. For more information, visit americantheatreguild.com/kansascity.
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Florence Price NATALIE FRANK’S UNBOUND
FOUR WELL-RESEARCHED literary narratives inspire four series of gouache on paper creations in this new exhibit at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art beginning January 18.
Fairy tales are not for kids. The Grimm Brothers’ stories feature more violence than a slasher film. Far from the imaginary world of Disney princesses and unicorns, the heroines in the original fairy tales are more spunky than glamorous; the villainesses often meet a grisly death.
The Story of O, an erotic novel written in 1954, features a Parisian heroine who has been taught to be totally submissive to men in everything sexual, considered the “true nature” of women. In Madame d’Aulnoy’s fantastical stories, women are shrewd rather than conventional, evil and virtuous at the same time.
If The Sorcerer’s Apprentice brings to mind Mickey Mouse in the animated film Fantasia, put that aside for now—and appreciate how Walt Disney brought his own 1950s happy families vibe to folk and fairy tales. Like the over 50 variants of the Cinderella story, there are also many for this story of an apprentice trying to learn magical powers, from the ancient Roman poet Ovid to the 18th-century German poet Goethe and the swashbuckling Sir Walter Scott.
Brooklyn artist and feminist Natalie Frank reinterprets these controversial tales and more in several series of drawings—black-and-white, gouache on paper, chalk, and pastel—that provoke, reimagine, and redefine.
For more information and hours, visit kemperart.org.
FOUNDED BY Kansas City native David Parsons in 1985, the New York-based company has been a Harriman-Jewell Series favorite since the group’s first national tour in 1988. Over 20 years later, Parsons Dance has developed into an international modern dance touring company and still offers some of the most compelling creations, such as the iconic strobe-lit Caught. Known for their athleticism and ensemble work, the company returns to Kansas City on January 21 with a program that includes new choreography by David Parsons set to Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ iconic songs, such as Peace Train and Trouble.
More than 75 works are in the Parsons Dance repertoire covering a vast range of motion and emotion—each one a celebration of humanity.
Whenever Parsons Dance performs, the audience is guaranteed excitement and artistic brilliance. The athletic dancers and exuberant choreography are hallmarks of Parsons Dance and have helped make it one of the most popular contemporary dance ensembles performing today. For tickets and safety requirements, visit kauffmancenter.org.
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CHARLOTTE STREET AWARDWINNING ARTISTS’ LECTURE
ART IS A SLOW PROCESS is and so are its award cycles. Three local artists chosen as Charlotte Street Award winners in 2020 by a panel of local and national curators will each give a lecture on January 27 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m..
The three awardees include Cory Imig, who specializes in installations such as Linear Spaces (2017) constructed of green satin ribbon, ratchet straps, and hardware. Glyneisha Johnson created For Us By Us (2017) in graphite-on-oil ground on paper. Kathy Liao’s Without (2018) employs collage, ink, gesso, charcoal, litho crayon, and pencil on paper.
The Charlotte Street Foundation annually honors three outstanding Kansas City-based visual artists with unrestricted cash awards. The Charlotte Street Awards also provide critical attention, and increased exposure for Award Fellows. The Nerman exhibits their works until April 24th.
Facial coverings are required but check before you go. nermanmuseum.org
Artist Glyneisha Johnson with her drawing, For Us By Us.
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