Note to Correspondents

SCULPTURAL INSTALLATIONS ON DISPLAY AT United Nations Headquarters

“Flight”, an exhibit of sculptural installations on the theme of war and peace and its human consequences and implications, will be on display in the North East Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby beginning Friday, 16 January.

This exhibition represents “flight” in two forms and with two meanings.  “Descent” is a large sculptural installation by Joyce Dallal on the theme of the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions, the treatment of prisoners of wars and the protection of civilian persons in time of war.  It hovers in the air, turning the Conventions into a suspended descending flight formation of hundreds of paper airplanes -- printed with the texts of the Conventions -- that simultaneously suggest a flock of origami cranes.

“Ese” by Samuel Olou is an installation that occupies the ground and is comprised of a formation of over 100 pairs of terra cotta feet, each pair unique, grouped to suggest movement, evoking the migration of populations due to war, famine or other human and natural causes.  The two pieces create a circular movement through the gallery, as though chasing each other in an endless cycle.

Joyce Dallal is an artist whose work addresses the evolution of contemporary cultural identity.  She works in a variety of media and has exhibited nationally and internationally.  She is the recipient of several grants and fellowships, among them a City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Grant.  She received her Master in Fine Arts from University of Southern California and is a professor at El Camino College in Southern California.

Samuel Komlan Olou is an innovative sculptor and one of the most well-known West African artists of his generation.  Olou, a leading figure in the Pan African Art Movement, co-founded the annual Art in Action international artist exchange in Accra, Ghana, in 2002 and has had numerous exhibitions around the world.  His work is in the collection of the World Bank in Washington, D.C.  Olou was born in Togo and lives in Norway.

This art exhibition is sponsored by the United Nations Department of Public Information and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.  It is supported in part by a grant from the Durfee Foundation and the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

For more information on United Nations exhibitions, please contact Jan Arnesen at tel.:  1 212 963 8531, e-mail:  arnesen@un.org; or Liza Wichmann at tel.:  1 212 963 0089, e-mail:  wichmann@un.org.

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