"This is a good example of the nature of contemporary art," he said.

The only requirement for Hachiyanagi's art was that it used the Lightwell Gallery, but she wanted to make the project interactive, too. So when she arrived in Norman Sept. 21, she got students and faculty from the School of Art and Art History involved, as well as other students, faculty and community members.

Hachiyanagi asked them to think about birth and population growth as they created small pieces of the whole art installation.

They tied the plastic babies any way they wanted to the small frames with string that looked something like gauze or skin. Then they wrote a word or phrase on a piece of paper the same size as the frame.

The phrase could be serious or funny and showed what the people were thinking or feeling as they made the pieces. "The more the merrier," "Fragile, handle with care," and "What will you teach me?" were some of the phrases written last week by students. The pieces of paper will be displayed in the installation as well.

Jared Flaming, studio art senior, helped with the project last Wednesday. He had made about 5-10 babies by "entering into it with kind of a blank mind." He said he would like to see what the project looked like when it was all put together.

"I'm curious, 'cause we kind of have limited knowledge of what we're doing," he said. "It's kind of a mystery at this point, so I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing."

The opening reception for the installation will be 2-4 p.m. Sunday at the Lightwell Gallery in the OU School of Art, 520 Parrington Oval.

Hachiyanagi will give an artist lecture 6 p.m. Oct. 17 at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, 555 Elm Ave. Dr. Richard Vine, managing editor of Art in America Magazine, will give a lecture on art criticism in conjunction with Hachiyanagi's visit 7 p.m. Oct. 16.

The lectures and opening reception are free and open to the public. For more information, call the University of Oklahoma School of Art at 325-2691 or visit http://art.ou.edu.

The exhibition is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History, Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, Oklahoma Humanities Council, Istvan Gallery, Kirkpatrick Family Fund and Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art.

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com