Palaver
2015-2019
Speed Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
Palaver is a large-scale sculpture inspired by the complex cultural and environmental history of tobacco farming in Kentucky. Using reclaimed wood from a tobacco barn, Moore’s Palaver includes a sixty-foot-long table, a monumental tobacco leaf sculpture, and a structure that evokes the tobacco barns found in the region. Palaver is located in the Speed Art Museum’s Elizabeth P. and Frederick K. Cressman Art Park. Moore designed Palaver to be a community gathering place for meals, storytelling, and discussions on art and farming. The barn-like structure includes the side slits, high roof and rustic texture associated with Kentucky tobacco barns. The interior of Moore’s barn is coated in white, which recalls the contemplative space of a white-walled museum gallery. Suspended from the center of the building is an impressive twelve-foot tall white tobacco leaf. This bright, monumental leaf is based on three-dimensional digital scans of actual tobacco plants, which were sourced from a farm outside Louisville. The long table which extends from both sides of Palaver includes communal benches available for public use. metallic landscape. These markers also reference the daily passage of travelers through the port facility. The dynamic play of shadows cast by the artwork and the light filtering through and bouncing off its aluminum surfaces create ever-changing experiences for those walking beneath the sculpture.
Matthew Moore, in collaboration with Braden King and Michael Krassner