Troy Kinney Kelley’s sculptures and paintings use quick response codes to inform and educate.
Artist Troy Kinney Kelley from Wichita has brought a number of his sculptures as well as his paintings to the Kemp Center for the Arts’s NorthLight Gallery and QR codes have come along with the “Return of the Native” exhibit that will be running right through May 14.
The sculptor and painter is hoping to use several styles and methods to bring a realism to his artwork.
That said, the exhibit is designed to bring together abstract expressionism and realism, along with QR codes that are fully functional and can be scanned by the smartphones and tablets of the visitors to the exhibits. These barcodes are typically seen in areas such as advertising or in museums and parks where signage space is limited but where a wealth of information can be shared with the visitor. Kelley is using the quick response codes as a part of and an extension of his artwork.
The QR codes can be used in order to learn more about the various pieces and about the artist.
The exhibit contains paintings, sculptures as well as a number of photographs of the 16 public sculptures that the artist has also created. This includes the “5 November 2009, Fort Hood Memorial,” which was only just recently dedicated in Killeen on March 11, 2016. That specific installation/building was created in order to commemorate the victims of the mass shooting that occurred in 2009 on that army base. The tragedy left 13 people dead and another 32 injured. Within this structure are contained a few of the most beloved objects of each of the individuals who died as a result of the attack.
Kelley explained that “We got coffee mugs, books, military awards. But the most poignant one was from PFC Francheska Velez’s family.” The reason was that the Iraq War veteran, who was 21 years old when she was killed, was also pregnant at the time. “Her object was a Scooby-Doo. I asked her father, and he said it was OK if I made a little Scooby-Doo and slid it up next to hers.”
A series of Kelley’s paintings are also of QR codes – either including them or centering on them. Each of them can be scanned. For instance, the “Duality QR Code” painting can be scanned suing a smartphone in order to share information about the painting’s composition with the viewer.
