Allen Peterson was born in Gadsden, Alabama. He immersed himself in the foundry process at the Metal Arts program of Sloss Furnaces National Historic Landmark in Birmingham, Alabama. He completed his Master’s degree in Sculpture from the University of Minnesota. After grad school, Allen Peterson taught sculpture at several colleges and universities before accepting his current position as Professor of Sculpture at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s campus in Atlanta. His work has been shown throughout the United States, as well as internationally. Peterson explores themes of system and community in his work, in which individual elements often combine to form structures based on interrelationships, and performance blurs the line between labor, system, and ritual.
Atlanta’s Giant Music Box
Allen Peterson | 2019
Peterson engages in an artistic practice that builds relationships, examines the nature of cooperation, or takes a second look at what we think we know. In Atlanta’s Giant Music Box, the partnership between a composer and a sculptor creates a kinetic sculpture that the public can activate as the third, and most important, collaborator. By turning a crank to produce the music, participants will not only hear an original composition by OK Cello, but may alter the sound by manipulating levers, remixing the music.