The medium is the message: Salt of the Earth
Six hundred to seven hundred pounds of table salt are being installed at the Arlington (VA) Art Center's new "Salt and Earth" exhibit as part of the Center's 2007 Winter Solos show. Artist Young Kim, a photography teacher at Elon College in North Carolina, says the title reflects "both his raw materials and the preciousness of life ('salt of the earth' meaning of great worth)." The exhibit was featured in a recent story in the Washington Post. The exhibit consists of ten photographic portraits of strangers the artist met on the street. They appear as silkscreens, where the "paper" is the white salt and the "ink" is a dark red clay powder.