Here's a Sneak Peek of the New Public Art Project in the Middle of Rice Campus

Here's a Sneak Peek of the New Public Art Project in the Middle of Rice Campus

Molina and Thirumalaisamy

A PROJECT FROM Rice University's Moody Center for the Arts, the Tent Series is a public-art exhibit erected in the heart of campus on the front of the Provisional Campus Facilities, found on Loop Road. It changes every school year, and this fall, the new art will be unveiled on Sept. 11.


This year's commissions are from Lorena Molina and Sindhu Thirumalaisamy, who will both speak at an opening reception Wednesday evening (6-8pm). The artists were invited to create large-scale works to foster conversation and community over the course of the school year.

Molina, a former UH professor of photography and digital media, uses art to "explore questions of identity, intimacy, and social inequities." For the Tent Series, she created La Tierra Recuerda, a depiction of the lava fields of the San Salvador volcano; that geographic area was used during the Salvadoran Civil War as a place to abandon the bodies of civilian casualties. Molina acknowledges the far-reaching impacts and the dual tragedy of the land in her piece.

For her part, Thirumalaisamy is a current professor at Rice, where she teaches interdisciplinary arts courses that incorporate environmental and feminist issues. The Tent Series piece is a projected-video work called provision, which uses "culturally significant materials and fleeting glimpses of the human body as an investigation into narrative structures, untold stories, and the passage of time."

Molina's and Thirumalaisamy's art will be on view through July 31, 2025. Parking and walking directions for viewing their works are posted here.

Molina's 'LaTierra Recuerda'

Thirumalaisamy's 'provision'

Art + Entertainment

Saba Syed, Founder of Oasis Moroccan Bath

How did you get to where you are today? My journey began with a need to be financially independent and an even a deeper drive to create a lasting legacy. The centuries-old Hammam tradition has always fascinated me—not just for its relaxation benefits, but for its holistic approach to cleansing the body, mind, and soul. So, combining my passion with a vision to bring an authentic yet luxurious Hammam spa experience to Houston, I took the leap less than two years ago to open my own spa.

Keep Reading Show less

Jacob Hilton, a.k.a. Travid Halton, at home in his kitchen, where he enjoys cooking as a form of therapy.

PINK FLOYD'S THE Wall. Sinatra’s In the Wee Small Hours. Beyonce’s Lemonade. Three divergent examples of the album as a cathartic, psychological, conceptual work, meant to be experienced in a single sitting. Houston singer-songwriter Jacob Hilton, 37, who records as Travid Halton, a portmanteau of his mother and father’s names, might balk at being mentioned in such company. (This is a thoroughly unpretentious man, who describes himself as an “archaeologist turned singer-songwriter.”)

Keep Reading Show less
Art + Entertainment