The Art Exhibit “The Sound of Thinking” runs Feb. 24 through March 20 in the Gallery of Pew fine Arts Center on the campus of Grove City College..
Yixuan Pan, an artist from China, creates artwork based on ideas of language. Pan’s exhibition will feature sound, video and text works to demonstrate to the audience not only how our thinking has sound, but how that sound changes based on culture and language. Pan's work is biographical in nature as well as research-oriented.
“Gallery visitors can expect to see two of Pan's video works that revolve around ideas of language, as well as listen to – and pace to – the sound of individuals thinking in different languages,” Chandler Brutscher, gallery director and exhibition curator, said. Headphones will be available for visitors as well as seating to fully take in the art.
Pan was born and raised Hunan, China, and grew up speaking Mandarin Chinese. “Then having traveled and moved frequently, I’ve decided to keep being confused about language. My lack of knowledge has become creative fuel that powers my explorations and curiosity,” she said.
Pan received her BA in Studio Art at George Fox University in 2014 and earned her MFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia in 2017. She currently teaches at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design and manages Practice Gallery in Philadelphia. She is the author of “It: A Skillful Amateur's Records on Glass.”
“An artist friend of mine told me once, ‘Art should make you think,’ and I've used that as a rule of thumb in my life to determine whether art is doing its job,” Brutscher said. “Pan's work makes me think, and I wanted to invite her into the Grove City College gallery to challenge students, staff and community members to think, too.”
The exhibit is free and the Gallery is open to the public from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. There will be a reception open to the public from 5 to 7:30 p.m. on March 11. Pan will attend via Skype to answer questions about her work at 6:30 p.m.