Students standing in line for Subway sandwiches in the EMU food court or coffee in The Buzz may miss the artistic offerings of the University’s Cultural Forum. With new shows up this month in the Aperture Gallery and The Buzz, students are reminded that hungry minds also need satisfaction.University student Jessie Wylie hung the work in the Aperture Gallery for her show, “Excerpts from the Big Picture,” last Sunday.
The title of the show explains Wylie’s philosophy of photography. Although she is a metalsmithing student, Wylie has been interested in photography since the beginning of this school year. She started taking pictures focused primarily on line and form in metal structures. Most of her pictures are close-up looks at objects that she repeats and distorts to create new images.
“I’m trying to abstract a piece so that it ceases to be the original object,” Wylie said. “I take pictures of things that we may not notice just walking past but have a lot of potential to become something more interesting.”
The young photographer started taking pictures of objects at playgrounds, using the fun nature of the space to reflect her lighthearted start in the medium. One of the works she will be displaying is made from images of a twisting slide found in these early shoots. After Wylie is through manipulating the image, however, she admits that it can be impossible to discern its beginnings. To help onlookers, she will include a copy of the original image next to the finished piece.
The transition from metalsmithing to photography was easy for Wylie, and now she uses the two media to play off each other.
“Photography is instant gratification, and metalsmithing is the polar opposite. You need to plan everything beforehand with metal, but you can do a lot in post-production with photographs,” she said.
This is the last show in the current Aperture Gallery before it is remodeled during spring break. Dan Karp, visual arts coordinator, received $5,000 for the project that was left over from the Fishbowl remodeling. Karp plans to give the gallery a complete overhaul to boost its professionalism.
“Right now, it’s more like a marquee than a gallery,” Karp said. “I do see people engaging the gallery every day, but this remodel will get the people that are just walking by to start paying attention.”
If students don’t have the time to pay attention just walking by, they will have the time while sitting down. A new art display by local artist Monique Janssen-Belitz goes up in The Buzz coffeehouse Sunday. Janssen-Belitz will be showing work from two series of oil paintings. The first series deals with the contrast between mothers and other women in society. The mother of two said that she has seen many mothers criticized for wanting to stay home and watch the children instead of pursuing more personal activities.
“I think that mothers should stay home with their kids,” Janssen-Belitz said. “For me, having kids was the best thing that ever happened to me, so it was easy.”
Janssen-Belitz used a small abstract statue of a mother holding her child to symbolize the classic view of motherhood. Other recurring symbols in the series are flowers and horses. The flowers are in different states of bloom, representing life, and there is a horse that is seen as a male protectorate figure.
Karp admits that this second-level meaning is easily overlooked and that viewers need to spend some time looking at the art to understand its true intention. Requiring this much of the viewer is something new for work in The Buzz, but Karp sees it as a new opportunity.
“In The Buzz, we like to challenge our viewers,” he said. “If we can do something against tradition every time we have a show there, then that will accomplish our goal.”
The work from the second series is based around The Lewis Chessmen chess pieces. While there is a wealth of history behind the pieces themselves, Janssen-Belitz chose them because of the richness of their personal expressions. By using the pieces as models, she creates a world where the characters interact, and she captures all the subtleties of their relationships in still images.
Karp said these two shows are very different and offer a rich variety of art in the EMU. A third exhibit of photographs by Kenro Izu will add further artistic diversity when it opens in the Adell McMillan Gallery on March 1. Look for the larger story in future Emerald arts and entertainment news.