Art exhibit details wonders of the body

Kristy Peet, College of the Mainland art instructor, will exhibit her current series, “Systematic Life,” from Sept. 8 through Oct. 13 at BOX 13 ArtSpace in Houston. An opening reception of the exhibit will be held Sept. 8 at 7 p.m.
 
Consisting of photographs, video and sculpture, the series seeks to show the body in “an illustrative and wondrous way, rather than in a scientific way,” she said. In the photos, she uses lights to represent certain body systems. For example, Nervous shows a black outline of a body with lights illuminating the brain and trailing down the spinal column.
 
“The exhibit is about how we don’t stop to think about what happens inside the body,” she said. She became interested in the body while creating her series “How I Will Die.”
 
Peet’s exhibit “How I Will Die” will be displayed at the Gaddis Geeslin Gallery at Sam Houston State University from Sept. 6-20 as part of the exhibition “Beneath the Surface,” featuring three artists’ work with portraiture. Peet will be delivering an artist’s talk at 5 p.m. before the opening reception at 6 p.m. The work is a series of self-portraits documenting the ways that Peet feared she would die.
 
“I’m a total hypochondriac,” Peet said. “Every time I would imagine I had a horrible disease, I would make a photograph. When I convinced myself I had a brain tumor, I did a photo of myself with a black dotted line on my forehead where a surgeon would cut.”
 
Another photo shows Peet’s feet under a sheet with ten toe tags; each tag states a different cause of death.
 
Her work is based “mostly on what is happening to me at the time, and hopefully it is something other people can relate to.”
 
Peet will have a third exhibit featuring her ceramics beginning Sept. 7 at 4411 on Montrose. The opening reception will be at 6 p.m.
 
All her photographic work is done with large format film. “I can enlarge it and still have a lot of detail,” she said. “I like working in a darkroom. It feels more hands on than hitting the print button on a computer.”
 
She enjoys the process of taking and developing photographs.
 
“It’s kind of magical watching a photo appear on a blank sheet of paper,” she said.