HUNTOPIA - Catalog - Page 22
T H O R N TO N
Hunt, it’s been an honor to work with you on this exhibit, and you inspire such an intuitive design process.
Is there anything you’d like to say about your process?
SLO N E M
Well, it’s very intuitive and kind of channeled, as it extends from our shopping for period pieces to color
choices. It’s so enormous in terms of the scope of what we’re trying to achieve, including selecting works
from your collection. It’s just a great pleasure and privilege to work with such a great team of people, such as
you. Anyway, it’s just been a challenge and we’re not through yet, but we’ve made a lot of progress through
all of the visits and through gathering those things, so I’m super excited to see it installed.
T H O R N TO N
In the conceptual phase of the exhibition, what did you envision when you first suggested the title
HUNTOPIA?
SLO N E M
Well, it’s a word that was conceived by Michael Butler, a psychic who’s no longer with us, who I worked
with for many years. I did my whole Valentino and Countess series through his channelings…. So, he
created that word. It’s also about the Armory (being my Armory in Pennsylvania, which is a whole city
block), and I’ve taken five years to create a “Huntropolis” there. I guess it’s a state of time travel, a state
of my aesthetic, my work from all periods. I would say mostly it’s about a very grand adaptation of his initial
word, which was a channeled phrase. It was a gift to me and I’ve used it a few times now, so it’s a slice
of my essence.
T H O R N TO N
The exhibit features artwork from the Taubman Museum of Art alongside your own paintings, textiles,
wallpaper, and several works culled from Roanoke institutions. Tell me about your experience in Roanoke.
SLO N E M
I have a very long history with Roanoke. One of the first people that contacted me in the beginning of
my career was [former Executive Director] Ruth Stevens Appelhof…and she brought the Board of Trustees
of the Museum to my studio (it was then the Art Museum of Western Virginia), and we did a show in
1992 called In the Realm of the Spirit, of my saint paintings and other early works from the 1980s and early
’90s. The trustees of the Museum, in its original form, really supported my work and collected my art,
such as the Turbyfills and the Goodes. Then I had a show at Hollins College with Margaret Evangeline, a
painter and my friend. And also Roanoke College with Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo. I gave quite a collection
of my work to Roanoke College’s collection and subsequently gave a lecture. This is all over, maybe, what,
a forty-year period of time. And now the Taubman Museum of Art—I got so excited when I saw all the
new spaces. And Joanne was a huge supporter of this happening, in every sense of the word. I’ve made many
trips to Black Dog Salvage and everywhere else … to find things from the community to use for the show.
And it’s one of the few installation projects I’ve done. So this is a very momentous occasion in an area that I
have shown in repeatedly over many years … if anyone remembers [laughter]. It’s exciting. I like to have
long-term associations with places.
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