In an attempt to bring a more culturally diverse artist forum to SIUC, the School of Art and Design’s Visiting Artist Program is putting on a series of lectures featuring artists from around the country.

It’s an unusual program, Jerry Monteith, director of the Visiting Artist Program said. These types of events are common in Chicago and New York, but are kind of unique in rural settings. We wanted to provide access to information that other people may take for granted in a large city.

Each artist will present a lecture about their work, as well as other information as to how their art reflects what is going on around us in the world and in our society. Some of the artists will also hold demonstrations and workshops on the campus and in the surrounding community.

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Tonight’s lecture features Janine Antoni. Monteith said that some of her past works have been statues made out of materials such as soap and chocolate.

One of her works was called Chocolate Gnaw’ and was a large brick of chocolate she had chewed into a statue, he said. The concept is a little unusual, but it represents how the contradictions of beauty make it difficult for women in society, and how the concept itself is a very thin one.

Each year a different theme is chosen for the program. This year’s theme is called Elemental Forces, and focuses on social and environmental issues.

The faculty and I each had ideas of who we wanted to bring here for the program, and we found that they could all be related to environmental and social issues, Monteith said.

Other upcoming artists that are scheduled to visit in the series are Mark Thompson and Byron Kim.

Mark Thompson is a California based artist who, in the past, has used bees and beekeeping in his work, Monteith said. At a previous lecture he put a device that he had constructed over his head with a swarm of bees in it, so that the bees were flying around his face as he stood there in front of the audience.

Monteith said that Kim is a painter who uses what looks to be a formal style on the surface, but as you examine it a very simplistic idea comes out.

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One of his pieces, Monteith said, was a grouping of basic colors that looked like they were arranged in a very precise manner, but it actually represents the skin tone and color of a different one of his friends.

Including tonight, there are a total of eight more lectures scheduled for the remainder of the school year. Each one is held at 7 p.m. in the Browne Auditorium of the Parkinson Building with free admission, and is followed by a question and answer period. For more information on the artists scheduled to speak and the dates call Jerry Monteith at 453-7792.