Artist wants public’s hands on his sculptures

Kimberley McGee

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 9:40 a.m.

Life-size sculptures fill the modest gallery space at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, but the artist who created them doesn't want visitors to be daunted by the thick metal, wood and fabric pieces.

He wants them to be played with.

Each interactive piece of Aristotle Georgiades' art works are anguished, insightful, iconic and huge.

"I like it to feel real," Georgiades said during a recent phone interview from his home in Madison, Wis.

Georgiades' works are on display at the gallery through Jan. 13. The sculptures consider issues of blue-collar economics, male identity and the value of physical work, he said.

"Most of my work has something to do with labor history and the changing nature of the idea of work as we know it," Georgiades said.

A tangled piece, titled "Lull," features a crank-operated forearm with thick fingers that drum noisily on a battered chunk of wood.

"I was thinking about a (painful) moment or an event and how it drums away at the soul," Georgiades said.

"Lull" is a work in progress, in that the fingers will eventually drum through the wood, he said.

For "Hostage," Georgiades gathered common parts of the American dream -- a lunchbox, a house, a car, a mobile home/trailer and a boat -- in a steel-mesh tiered cage.

"I grew up in a blue-collar family, and a lot of my work reflects my background," he said.

Georgiades teaches art and sculpture at University of Wisconsin at Madison between his hours at his art studio near his home.

Georgiades wasn't sure what to expect from the entertainment capital of the world when the city of Las Vegas' cultural and community affairs department invited him to show his pieces at the Charleston Heights Arts Center gallery.

So the 46-year-old made his first trip to Las Vegas in November to visit the gallery, as well as lecture to 65 art students at the Las Vegas Art Academy. He also popped into other area art galleries to check out the work of local artists.

"Las Vegas is cool," Georgiades said. "There's a lot of art there."

Nancy Sloan, spokeswoman for the city's cultural and community affairs department, said Georgiades' work was chosen for its powerful presence.

Sloan had planned to use 12 of Georgiades' pieces, but said she felt crowding the gallery would take away from the impact of each sculpture.

"They are so large and lifesized they fill the room," Sloan said. "We wanted more. It was hard to choose just eight."

But Georgiades doesn't wish to intimidate gallery guests. He said he creates his work to be engaging. He wants people to feel welcome to turn a handle or crank a lever.

"I'm inviting people into the work and hope they excavate meaning from the work," Georgiades said. "I appreciate when an intelligent person reads something into it and gets something out of it."