Chunks of concrete housed in a giant metal crate, which look mundane on the outside, hold four-and-a-half decades of history and represent a legacy to many UNC Charlotte alumni. The Belk Tower was a popular and defining fixture of the university until its removal in 2016, and while the tower itself is gone, the university still holds onto a piece of it \u2013 many pieces to be exact \u2013 which can now be seen in Lambla Gallery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\n Milwaukee-based artist Nicole Shaver was struck by the desire for the university to keep the pieces of the tower\u2019s foundation after all this time, a relic of the past that holds importance to many. Shaver has a strong interest in the overlap of art and geology, a topic she explores in the exhibition \u201cErratic Accretion.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On view through March 15, \u201cErratic Accretion\u201d sparks interdisciplinary conversations through the interplay of art objects and geological specimens. In the exhibition, Shaver combines her creative work with UNC Charlotte\u2019s geology collection, the Belk Tower detritus, and a wide variety of items found throughout campus that were left behind by students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs an artist, I’m really drawn to material and what vehicle I can tell stories through, and to me, geology is like that basic building block of our planet,\u201d said Shaver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The title \u201cErratic Accretion\u201d has a double, metaphorical meaning. Commonly implying unexpected or irregular behavior, in geological terms \u201cerratic\u201d refers to rocks transported across long distances by glaciers, which then emerge once the ice melts. Likewise, the components of the exhibit were brought together from unexpected \u2013 even random \u2013 places, remainders of past activity that come together to form a coherent whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The geological specimens in the exhibit tell stories of the different locations and times in which they were discovered. The specimens housed in display cases at the gallery\u2019s center come from the collection of John Orchard, a member of Charlotte\u2019s Gem and Mineral Club whose collection was donated to the university in 2015. Alongside these are petrified wood and other larger specimens from the rest of the geology department\u2019s collection. Pieces of Shaver\u2019s personal collection also make an appearance as a part of the \u2018found book\u2019 pieces on the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGeology collections like this are better off displayed for people to see rather than kept hidden,\u201d said Shaver. This sentiment is shared by Valerie Reynolds, assistant teaching professor and undergraduate coordinator for Geology and Earth & Environmental Science in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences. UNC Charlotte\u2019s geology collection has been largely hidden from the public eye since its donation, but Reynolds hopes to change this starting with Shaver\u2019s exhibition of many of its specimens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cErratic Accretion\u201d can be viewed in the Lambla Gallery in the Storrs building Monday-Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Shaver will travel to UNC Charlotte for the closing reception on March 14 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. and will speak about her work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for UNC Charlotte\u2019s geology collection, Reynolds hopes that this exhibition will serve as the catalyst for the specimens to be displayed more prominently at the university. \u201cI’ve made the decision to display some of these and some other samples on the first floor in the McEniry building,\u201d said Reynolds, hopeful that this display will bring in more students interested in studying geology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Article by Will Loyd; photos by Sunnie Stainback.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chunks of concrete housed in a giant metal crate, which look mundane on the outside, hold four-and-a-half decades of history and represent a legacy to many UNC Charlotte alumni. The Belk Tower was a popular and defining fixture of the university until its removal in 2016, and while the tower itself is gone, the university […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":39945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_clt_a11y_last_scan":"1778693622","_clt_a11y_has_violations":"0","_clt_a11y_violations":"[]","_clt_a11y_suppressions":"","_clt_a11y_needs_validation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,55],"class_list":["post-39935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-art-art-history","tag-coaa"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"image\"](\"https:\/\/cws.charlotte.edu\/backup-coaa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/807\/2024\/02\/IMG_9887-1000x667.jpg\")
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The non-geological objects hold the stories of today\u2019s students, showing different artifacts which have been left behind, dropped, or discarded by students. These items range from flash drives and batteries to sauce packets and small rocks, all of which are displayed in plexiglass cubes. Though discarded by their initial owner, these objects are now able to hold a reassigned value dictated by the exhibit\u2019s audience. \u201cThere’s a human compulsion to put value on something,\u201d said Shaver, \u201ca compulsion to want to save a moment or save value within an object.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n