Photo Flash: INVETERATE COMPOSITION FOR CLARE Sculpture Installed at Nashville's Frist Center

Today the Frist Center for the Visual Arts installed its newest outdoor sculpture, Inveterate Composition for Clare by Brooklyn-based artist Rachel Owens. The multimedia sculpture-composed of Humvee shells, lights and an internal sound system that emits whale sounds-is stationed at the Center's Demonbreun Street entrance; it will remain on view through August 1, 2014. Scroll down for photos from the installation!

Created in 2011, Inveterate Composition for Clare has powerful political and environmental connotations. Owens dismantled two replica kit military Humvee shells and reassembled their parts, welding them together with additional pieces of scrap metal in a monumental quasi-cubist form.

"The iconography of rebuilt military vehicles suggests the fragmentation caused by war," says Frist Center Chief Curator Mark Scala. "Additionally, the artist's use of extra scrap metal not only serves to create a more cohesive form, but also refers to extra armaments that American soldiers add to their own Humvees and equipment for protection in combat."

The headlights of the reconstructed Humvees dim and brighten in accordance with the whale sounds that emanate from the work's internal stereo. "Instead of the hip-hop or heavy metal music heard inside many military vehicles as soldiers go into combat, the haunting whale sounds create an emotional link between human conflict and environmental vulnerability," explains Mr. Scala. Noting the sculpture's uniform metallic white color and angular form is suggestive of an iceberg, Mr. Scala adds that the artist draws a connection between issues of global warming and the fossil fuels that lie at the heart of many Middle Eastern conflicts.

The work was developed with the support of the late Clare Weiss, curator for the New York City Parks Department, and supported by The Foundation for Contemporary Art, Brooke and Daniel Neidich, Jerry Speyer and Katherine Farley, The Warner-Stanton Family, The Estate of Theo Westenberger, among others. It was first exhibited in Manhattan's Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, across from the United Nations building.

Rachel Owens is a Brooklyn-based contemporary multimedia artist. Born in Atlanta and raised in Missouri, Owens received her master's of fine art from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1999. Her work has exhibited internationally and has been reviewed widely, including in The New York Times, The New Yorker and Art in America. She is represented by ZieherSmith Gallery in New York.

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, located at 919 Broadway in downtown Nashville, Tenn., is an art exhibition center dedicated to presenting the finest visual art from local, regional, U.S. and international sources in a program of changing exhibitions. The Frist Center's Martin ArtQuest Gallery (open until 5:30 p.m. each day) features interactive stations relating to Frist Center exhibitions. Gallery admission to the Frist Center is free for visitors 18 and younger and to Frist Center members. Additional information is available by calling (615) 244-3340 or by visiting www.fristcenter.org.

Artwork: Rachel Owens. Inveterate Composition for Clare, 2011. Repurposed replica Humvees (steel and fiberglass), humpback whale songs, and lights, 11 ft. 2 in. x 14 ft. x 10 ft. 6 in. Courtesy of the artist and ZieherSmith, New York. Photography of installation by Richard Feaster, courtesy of the Frist Center.