Those who observe artist Mel Chin’s sculpture, Two Me, on the main terrace of the Toledo Museum of Art won’t be able to resist being part of the conversation.

Chin, 67, an artist noted for his conceptual and interactive work, said Two Me addresses both ideas of individualism within the Declaration of Independence, and the spirit of coexistence addressed in the U.S. Constitution. Participants will be able to ascend to the top of two parallel, 7-foot pedestals inscribed with the word Me, essentially completing the sculpture as both individuals and — by looking across to the other column — with another person.

“We live in a time where ... there is a lot of conversation about monuments and what they mean and what they represent,” Chin said during an interview with The Blade. “This work is about how you make a monument that is completed by the people who engage in it. Instead of some bronze concoction, or horses and a soldier, or some departed leader, a living person becomes the monument.”

It will be installed at the museum Sept. 22 as part of SculptureX 2018: Igniting Change, a collaboration of local academic institutions that includes a two-day symposium Sept. 28 and 29 featuring 12 speakers, workshops, art installations, tours, and informal gatherings, as well as six exhibitions across Northwest Ohio. The interactive sculpture will remain at TMA through Nov. 11 before it returns to its original venue, the City Hall courtyard in Philadelphia.

SculptureX is an event in its ninth year that was started by a group of academic institutions in Cleveland and operated under the Sculpture Center there. This is the first time the event is being hosted in the Toledo area. This year’s collective is presented by the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Owens Community College, the Toledo Museum of Art, and Contemporary Art Toledo.

The 2018 theme of SculptureX is the concept of social practice as a means of challenging existing norms or conditions in art, said Brian Carpenter, UT assistant professor and gallery director of the Center for the Visual Arts.

“We really wanted to focus on that theme and highlight artists in our region and elsewhere that use this method of social practice in their art practice,” Carpenter said. “It was key for us to get this wide range of social practice work, from the intensely conceptual to the more light and community-engaged and fun components.”

The event allows for the discussion about social practices and art to be held at a variety of different levels, said Charles Tucker, head of sculpture at BGSU’s department of art.

“We have speakers from the Toledo area that are at the core, the center of the art community with the museum and arts commission who will be talking about what they are doing within this space in terms of the community itself. We have the academic institutions that are providing these exhibitions and the place for these conversations to occur,” Tucker said. “There are workshops that are going on to help explore some of these ideas in detail and in a very different way. And then ... we have six exhibitions occurring with artist work along this particular thematic topic of social practice.”

Speakers over the two days include artists, curators, art critics, and educators who will discuss different topics of engaging in social and political practice through art. Keynote speakers are Chin and Laurie Jo Reynolds, a policy advocate and assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who “challenges the demonization, warehousing, and social exclusion of people in the criminal legal system,” according to her bio.

The exhibitions, most of which will remain on display for several weeks after the symposium ends, include OIL + WATER, a photography show at Owens by artists Kate Levy and Shanna Merola, who examine connections between the oil and gas industry, privatization of water, and heightened militarization of local police agencies, and LINEATIONS by Toledo performance artist Erin Garber-Pearson, who uses “sculpture, video, and live tight-wire performance to embody place-based identity.” Garber-Pearson will do a live high wire walk onsite during the show’s opening at 6 p.m. Sept. 28 at River House Arts Gallery in downtown Toledo, said Paula Baldoni, gallery owner and co-founder with Carpenter of Contemporary Art Toledo.

Academics, artists, collectors, and other members of the public who are interested in the topic are encouraged to attend. To register or for more information on exhibitions and speakers, go to catoledo.org.

Contact Roberta Gedert at: rgedert@theblade.com, 419-724-6075, or on Twitter @RoGedert.

First Published September 16, 2018, 12:30 p.m.