Earth's population increases at an average rate of 1 million people every four days.

The magnitude of that rate is hard to grasp, and it's easy for many people to push it out of their minds because it's just a number.

But Rie Hachiyanagi couldn't forget about it.

So she created a nearly 45-foot-high art installation to illustrate "the complex relationship to birth and the precarious balance of our life."

"Everyone should be aware, but we don't feel the effect (of population growth) every day," Hachiyanagi said.

The art was installed in the 54,000-cubic-foot Lightwell Gallery inside the University of Oklahoma School of Art.

"One Million Every Four Days" features 1,000 small plastic babies that are tied into plexiglass frames. The frames are then strung together and suspended inside the gallery space. In addition to the babies, another 1,000 empty plexiglass frames are hung in the gallery.

The aim of the installation is to provoke thought about the current rate of population growth.

"I just wanted this piece to make people think about birth," Hachiyanagi said.

Hachiyanagi said the issue of population growth is complex. Overpopulation can lead to poverty and overconsumption of the earth's resources. But births are generally celebrated as joyous occasions in our society.

Hachiyanagi recently visited her home country, Japan, and saw the negative results of a low birth rate. The younger generation has to support a larger aging population and as a result a lot of immigrants come to fulfill jobs but don't take care of Japan because they hold no pride in it, she said.

Originally from Sapporo, Japan, Hachiyanagi came to the United States as a high school exchange student. She went on to receive her bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of Iowa and a master of fine arts from the University of California at Santa Barbara. After teaching at Alfred University in New York for five years, she now teaches at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

She is the guest artist chosen for the inaugural Lightwell Gallery Project, which brings in artists to use the unique gallery space in the OU School of Art.

Jonathan Hils, associate professor in the School of Art and Art History, was one of the professors who began the project. He said it is hoped that it will be an annual event.

This art installation will mean different things to different people, he said.

"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