Photos by Glenn Triest
Sculptor Deanna
Sperka is
creating a major
exhibition for
Northern
Michigan,
modified by her
heritage.
SUZANNE CHESSLER
SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Structrua
Deanna Sperka prepares for a major exhibit.
D
Sperka's
eanna
sculpture is not for
sale. The price reach-
es deeper than dol-
lars.
Her exhibits, like the
one that will be displayed
throughout September at
Northern Michigan
University in Marquette,
ask viewers to pay atten-
tion. Her objective is to
communicate political/
social ideas, represented
in mammoth structures
known as installation art.
As Ms. Sperka prepares
for her September show,
she works hour upon hour
in her 2,000-square-foot
studio located northwest of
downtown Detroit. She is
using photographs, wood,
stone, fabric, iron pellets
and bullets to create what
she has titled Parallel
Tracks for the university's
Lee Hall Gallery.
"My more obvious mes-
sage is that a person from
outside the Marquette
environment can perceive
the beauty and industry
very differently from what
it really is," said the artist,
whose labors are financed
by a school stipend.
A parallel message,
which she hopes is part of
the piece on a more subtle
level, has to do with creat-
ing the understanding
that diverse people have
the right to exist together
peacefully.
Ms. Sperka originally
had approached the
gallery about an installa-
tion that would capture
the natural essence of the
area, specifically the rocks
and the mining. However,
as she explored the territo-
ry to take photos for her
piece, she was jarred by
anti-Jewish graffiti that
ultimately changed the
direction of her project.
"I had explored the vir-
gin territory with beauti-
ful landscapes, free-roam-
ing deer and peaceful
silence, and I also looked
at the industry with rail-
road cars, fences surround-
ing mines and iron pellets
used to manufacture
steel," she recalled.
"In one of the places I
perhaps should not have
been — I slipped under a
fence — I found the anti-
Jewish graffiti beside
satanic messages spray-
painted on some struc-
tures, and I was thrown by
it all.
"Also during that time, I
met a Jewish woman who
had started a Holocaust
section at the university,
and after our conversa-
tions, all of a sudden I
associated the numbers on
the trains with the num-
bers on arms of people, the
stacking of lumber with
the stacking of victims and
the pellets with bullets.
"I had gone to what
should have been a very
benign place, put my own
background into it because
of the emotions triggered
by the graffiti and started
to think about a way to
bring these experiences
into focus."
Ms. Sperka has been
concentrating on installa-
tion art since the late
1970s, when it first gained
popularity. The artist left
behind the oil and acrylic
painting with which she
had worked since she was
8 years old.
"I went into photogra-
phy, conceptual art and
installation at the same
STRUCTURAL page 98
cr)
CS,
0,
C/D
CD
89