"It's all about pushing the boundaries of what we call painting," Arzu Komili '08 said of her art, currently on display in the exhibition of junior independent work in the Lucas Gallery at 185 Nassau. The show, of course, is not limited to painting. The students featured in the exhibition also test the limits of photography, sculpture and even the narrative potential of art. From experimental photographs to living sculptures to photographic books, the innovative projects suggest that the ideas behind these students' work were in many cases as important as the visual appeal of the art.
Komili's work explores an experimental combination of photography and sculpture: She uses all the materials of a traditional painting — canvas, wooden stretchers and paint — to create unconventional, three-dimensional paintings. Meredith Thompson '08's work raises questions about the nature of sculpture and the fine line between sculpture and performance art: As part of her display, she becomes a human sculpture, sitting completely still, covered in paint. Similarly, Jon Huddleson '08 ignores the limits of where his art ends and the room begins, setting up the lower level of the gallery so that the stairs lead directly down to a plaster sea where a life-sized plaster cast of a person floats.
The show's collections of photographs play with the narrative possibilities of the medium. Alexis Collatos '08's photographs of suburban life are, she says, "meant to represent moments in time — the type of beautiful moments that usually pass the viewer by, but, thanks to photography, are presented here for the viewer's perusal ... I played with the idea of a suburban Garden of Eden." Nora Gross '08 developed an entire photographic book in an attempt, as she explains in her artist's statement, to explore "what it means to tell another person's story in images." Gross' photos cover a year in the life of a six-year-old Brooklyn boy named Menelik Allen. She eventually invited Menelik and his mother to create their own narratives by putting the photographs in whatever order they wanted. Excerpts from this sequence are featured in the exhibition.
This sort of intellectual experimentation in art is in keeping with the purpose of junior independent work, which is to give students "a chance to explore interests that we can't necessarily pursue fully in regular coursework," Collatos says. "Art is inherently an area which demands personal exploration, and therefore independent work is a crucial element of the visual arts program." Additionally, junior independent work can provide students majoring in the art and archaeology program two or receiving visual arts certificates with practice for their senior independent work. Many visual senior theses are based on more intellectual explorations of the possibilities of art.
Kelsey Johnson '08 says she found the junior work to be helpful preparation. "I'm really excited about the prospect of doing this much better the second time around." Johnson is majoring in program two and concentrating in photography; her work, however, features both painting and photography in an innovative attempt to add layers to her art. "Essentially," Johnson explains, "the whole project was to begin putting my photos and paintings together — in some cases it was successful, in other cases not." Attempting to reconcile these two media will be a continuing challenge in her senior work as Johnson moves toward a more integrated approach. So far, the most successful of her pieces is a collage of paintings and photographs cut in such a way as to be unrecognizable as one or the other.
While many of the projects on display present specific ideas about the meaning and possibilities of certain media, others explore more purely visual themes. Carlos Jimenez '08 presents a visually stunning series of photographs taken at construction sites, all paying careful attention to color, lighting and line. A photograph in which the metal frame of a building breaks an empty sky into Mondrian-esque sections is particularly notable. Thompson investigates the textural possibilities of paint in several abstract paintings, while Jessica Thompson '08's delicate pen-and-ink drawings escape single sheets of paper to form sprawling towns on the gallery's walls. The exhibition also features the photography of seniors Lena Neufeld, Roxanne Martinez and Dorie Golkin as well as a video by Jon Larkin '08. Whether probing the borders of definitions or celebrating the visual possibilities of a medium, these artists should have no problems producing stimulating senior work.
Running from Sept. 25 to Oct. 12, the exhibition will be open Monday-Friday, 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
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