VIDEO: Artist using river debris for exhibit

Brian Guidry will be prowling the banks of the Cedar River and nearby neighborhoods Monday, looking for his art's raw material.

“I haven't got there, but I've seen a little,” Guidry said Sunday afternoon.

The debris he collects will become “Slipstream,” an installation at the CSPS gallery that will be unveiled Saturday during CRecycle Eco-Art Fest. Guidry's weeklong residency is contribution of Legion Arts, the non-profit that owns and operates CSPS, to the festival marking the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Guidry, 41, a Louisiana native and curator at the Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette, La., has created similar pieces with material taken from rivers there. Collecting everything from auto batteries to a discarded golf cart, he paints the items a uniform color and assembles them.

“It's going to be similar,” Guidry said of his Iowa work, “except I'm going to be sampling some prairie grass for the color.”

Guidry was standing in a vacant shop near Czech Village where he'll spray-paint the pieces before hauling them across the river to CSPS. The painting is a key part of the transition from flotsam to art.

“It's like camouflage,” he said. “I'm masking out the identity of the objects with nature, sort of. Nature always reclaims.”

“Slipstream” also will comment on nature through “Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.” When installed at CSPS, the piece will incorporate a video system screening clips of the old TV program.

“It sort of retains the narrative, but it has these hard edges,” Guidry said of the edited video.

Guidry said he's noticed the high-water marks on neighborhood buildings, and it's likely one will be part of “Slipstream,” too.

Guidry was first retained by Legion Arts for a residency in 2008, before that June's flood.

“I'm glad I'm finally here,” he said.

“We think the artists from Louisiana share a similar story to the artists here,” said Mel Andringa, Legion Arts' artistic director. “An artist can tell us something about their experiences, and give us a hint of what's to come next.”

“Slipstream” will be installed at CSPS, 1103 Third St. SE, by the weekend. Guidry will be on hand to discuss the work and its creation from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday during the festival.

“I don't have a specific message,” Guidry said. “I want people to come to it, and you can kind of draw your own conclusions.”

For more information on Guidry's residency: www.legionarts.org

For more on the CRecycle Eco-Art Fest: www.newbohemia.org