Myron Helfgott’s sculpture “Tyranny of the Theoretical” spans more than 12 feet. Two chairs and desks cluttered with objects face each other, one representing the artist Myron, the other the Freudian Myron. Audio from a speaker on each desk loops continuously and simultaneously, although they are distant enough to listen to one or the other.

The voice at the artist’s desk is his own, a roughly 17-minute musing in which the sculptor said during a telephone interview that he is “rummaging around my brain” about things, such as how his own art doesn’t compare to others. “There’s a lot of BS in there,” he said. “In other words, everything I say in the pieces is not necessarily what I believe.”

This photo shows a detail of sculptor Myron Helfgott’s “Tyranny of the Theoretical,” a piece that spans more than 12 feet of space in Sweet Briar College’s Babcock Gallery.He also speaks at the Freud desk, this time about his personal “issues.”

The viewer is invited to sit and eavesdrop at either desk for a long as he or she wishes.

“Tyranny” is one of two sculptures showing at his exhibition from Jan. 18 to March 31 in Sweet Briar College’s Babcock Gallery. An artist’s reception and gallery talk will be held from 4:30 to 6 p.m. March 28.

Helfgott, professor emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University where he and his colleagues elevated the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media to national prominence, often uses audio, electric motors, video, photography and assemblage in his works. In recent years, he has been influenced by authors and filmmakers whom he admires, frequently incorporating their favored literary devices into his art.

The Sweet Briar show’s foray into the literary is seen in half-a-dozen or so “non-fiction” drawings that will hang in the entranceway to the gallery. They are part of a larger collection Helfgott began earlier this year, inspired by the writings of Enrique Vila-Matas. Vila-Matas wrote two mostly non-fiction books, one about real writers who suffered writer’s block, the other featuring writers’ diaries.

Helfgott had made recent attempts at drawing, only to be frustrated with the results. Reading the books prompted the question, “What would a non-fiction drawing be?”

The answer came from the pocket notebooks he always carries in which he records daily expenses while traveling for tax purposes, ideas for art works and random thoughts. Using a homemade pantograph, he enlarged the 4- by 6-inch lined pages to cover most of the 24- by 36-inch panels they are mounted on. Each is bordered by sections of random photographs he added because he felt the remaining white space needed to be filled.

“I assume there will be some kind of conversation between the text and photos,” Helfgott said, although he noted he didn’t strive for intentional dialogue.

Describing the second sculpture in the show in an e-mail, Helfgott wrote, “ ‘A Conversation with Max Frisch’ is just that. Max Frisch died in about 1989 so I took his notebooks, and from it his thoughts, and built a conversation between the two of us using a combination of our ideas.”

The piece also employs audio and features large-format photographs of himself and Frisch, a Swiss architect, novelist and playwright. Again, a table sits between the facing images, strewn with stuff — or “crapola,” as he puts it.

Helfgott taught at VCU from 1968 to 2003. He has exhibited all over the world. His honors include the Virginia Commission for the Arts Distinguished Artist award.

Art gallery hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Friday, and 1 to 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. For information, please call (434) 381-6248.

– By Jennifer McManamay, SBC staff writer