‘Intimacies of Telephony’ on display in Plunkett Gallery

Voicemails saved on a cell phone inspired Margaret Hart to create an art show called “Intimacies of Telephony” that is now on display in Hardman Hall’s Frances Sewell Plunkett Gallery.

Hart’s creativity originated from voicemails left by her late mother. Hart said she was unable to get the files off her old flip phone.

“It housed an emotional catalogue … and as long as I had the phone, I could play back the messages,” Hart said in her artist statement in the show.

The show is an installation of many phones that Hart has collected and stored in jars with oil. It looks like a science experiment.

“There’s an interesting visual effect that happens with the light coming through the oil and refracting on the phones, but also, the curvature of the jars creates a distortion which is interesting, too,” said Craig Coleman, associate professor of art at Mercer University.

In addition to the phone installation in the center of the room, the show also includes framed works along the wall that are related to the phones, a video created by the artist and a research paper, Coleman said.

The show will be in the Plunkett Gallery until Oct. 28.

“[Students] should come see the show because it’s probably a type of art they’re not very familiar with, that they haven’t seen much of before or maybe not at all,” Coleman said.

Hart lives in Boston where she is a professor at the University of Massachusetts and the chair of the art department there.

Coleman said he invited her to display her artwork at Mercer because he was acquainted with her from attending graduate school together at the University of Colorado.

Coleman said the show was very unique and different from the types of shows students usually see because the students could be a part of the show.

“It’s not very often that you can be inside of an artwork, and this show you can actually walk through it and be inside of the art,” Coleman said.