Lilley Museum's 'Earth's Winding-Sheet' Turns Dust Into a Clock for Grief and Time
At the University of Nevada, Reno's John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art, chief curator Stephanie Gibson has curated an exhibition titled Earth's Winding-Sheet, which explores themes of dust, soil, and elemental materials. The exhibition draws inspiration from sculptor Thomas J. Price's desire to engage with soil and features artists such as Sindhu Thirumalaisamy, Brie Ruais, and Sining Zhu. Ruais showcases ceramic pieces including Two Cycling on an Axis (2023), Three Orbiting Bodies (2023), and Digging In (2023). Thirumalaisamy presents dust-time (2025), which incorporates footage from Tamil Nadu, India. Zhu's work, Still a long dream (2025), utilizes materials sourced from L.A.'s Chinatown. Additionally, poet Jared Stanley has created A Poem in Five Verses (2026), a sculptural poem that collects dust. The exhibition also includes photographs by Lee Pfalmer, Scott Oliver, and Max Stone.
Key facts
- Earth's Winding-Sheet is on view at the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art at the University of Nevada, Reno
- Stephanie Gibson, the museum's director and chief curator, organized the exhibition
- The show grew from a studio visit between Gibson and sculptor Thomas J. Price, who was making mud paintings on the wall
- Brie Ruais's ceramic wall works include Two Cycling on an Axis, Three Orbiting Bodies, and Digging In, all from 2023
- Sindhu Thirumalaisamy's two-channel video dust-time (2025) shows an abandoned freeway in Tamil Nadu, India, and the scattering of her grandmother's ashes
- Sining Zhu's Still a long dream (2025) uses discarded objects gathered at Dynasty Center in Los Angeles's Chinatown
- Jared Stanley's A Poem in Five Verses (2026) includes a green dome into which museum staff deposit floor sweepings every other day, recording their names and dates in a ledger
- Gibson curated the Lilley's 2019 inaugural exhibition, which featured work by Stanley and Sameer Farooq
Entities
Artists
- Stephanie Gibson
- Thomas J. Price
- Sindhu Thirumalaisamy
- Brie Ruais
- Sining Zhu
- Jared Stanley
- Sameer Farooq
- Charlie Brown
- Lee Pfalmer
- Scott Oliver
- Max Stone
Institutions
- John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art
- University of Nevada, Reno
- Nevada Humanities
- Dynasty Center
- Southwest Contemporary
Locations
- Reno
- United States
- Nevada
- Tamil Nadu
- India
- Los Angeles
- Chinatown
- Babylon