UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — HUB-Robeson Galleries will present "Kith & Kin: A Rewilding of Sound and Form," an exhibition by interdisciplinary artist Melissa Hyatt Foss, through Dec. 13 in the exhibition cases at the HUB-Robeson Center.
A public reception will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, on the first floor of the HUB-Robeson Center. Attendees can meet the artist, take part in a question-and-answer session and watch a live demonstration of the instruments. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.
The exhibition traces Foss' path from her academic and artistic training in Argentina, where she reconstructed, performed and composed with pre-Columbian instruments, to a new body of work rooted in her own memories and her relationships with what she calls "more-than-human kin." The exhibition also features a selection of ancient instruments on loan from Penn State's Matson Museum of Anthropology, which have informed and inspired Foss's practice.
Drawing on Indigenous sound technologies she studied, Foss explores how that knowledge can be carried into contemporary life. She transforms encounters with birds, plants and animals into sculptural ceramic instruments, including flutes, rattles, whistling bottles and horns. For Foss, playing them is an act of attention and offering, one that grounds the player in the body and opens a dialogue with place.
Foss said she uses the term "rewilding" to describe this ongoing shift. She does not mean a return to a distant past. Instead, she means a loosening of the boundaries between human experience and the natural world. In contrast to a culture she sees as oriented toward extraction and disposability, her work emphasizes relationship and reverence, inviting viewers to listen more closely to the world around them.
About the artist
Foss is an instrument-maker, musician, composer and teaching artist whose practice spans clay, sound, sculpture and performance. Her hand-built instruments draw from historical sound traditions of the Americas and from experimental approaches to musical creation, informed by sustained research into pre-Columbian sound technologies.
Foss lived and worked in Argentina for 12 years. She earned a master's degree in musical creation, new technologies and traditional arts from the National University of Tres de Febrero (UNTREF). She performed and toured internationally for seven years as a soloist with the Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments and New Technologies, and she taught in UNTREF's undergraduate program in Indigenous, classical and popular music of the Americas.
Since returning to the United States in 2021, Foss has presented her work at institutions including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and Yale University. As a teaching artist, she develops workshops, school residencies and community-based programs for learners of all ages. "Kith & Kin" was first presented in 2025 at Creative Alliance in Baltimore, where Foss is based.
For more information about this exhibition and others, contact HUB-Robeson Galleries at 814-865-2563 or visit the galleries website.
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