University students studied art and Northern Italian culture for three weeks last summer in Canova, Italy, a medieval stone village located in the town of Oira.
Their photography and mixed media from the trip is on display this week at the Laverne Krause Gallery in Lawrence Hall.
It was the first year of the overseas program, sponsored by the art department.
The work produced by students is an amalgam of modern and unpolished photography styles, said University professor Terri Warpinski, resident director of the program.
“I wanted the students to learn the early development styles of photography that have a primitive quality to it,” Warpinski said. “The students relied on the simple principles of photography – they saw how simple and straightforward it can be.”
The group did not have a darkroom on site, so the students explored photography that creates prints on the spot, such as pin-hole cameras and cyanotypes, a process that uses the ultraviolet light in sunlight to create the picture.
Warpinski said she encouraged the students to focus on an artistic style that was interesting to them. Some students depicted the many hikes they went on, while others focused on the historic atmosphere around them.
Students were taught Italian by a local woman, given Italian cuisine cooking lessons by a local man and had a chance to interact with locals in the cafes.
“It was a really intimate community to live in,” Warpinski said. “Everyone that lives there is an artist in one way or another.”
About 200 people live in the village.
“A lot of the people there were older, in their 50s or 60s, but it seemed fitting for that place,” said University student Elizabeth Bryan. “To go and be in a place that has existed for 4,000 years is amazing. It was like a fairy tale.”
“It was such a great mix for my passion of traveling and earning credits for school,” said Karen Olch, an art major.
Warpinski will be leading another group to Oira in August.
Also on display in the Laverne Krause Gallery this week are drawings and blueprints by students who participated in the University Historic Preservation and Architecture Program’s Italy Field School, which also took students to Oira.
Students studied, explored and recorded the unique stone-building culture of the area. It was the sixth year of the school, and each year the students build or restore an aspect of the town, University architecture adjunct professor Michael Cockram said.
“Last year, they built a pavilion inside the village,” Cockram said. “Our goal next year is to rebuild a mill that sits next to the main stream.”
For information on the 2006 summer art program to Oira, contact the Department of Art at 541-346-3610. For information on the upcoming Italy Field Study, go to hp.uoregon.edu/fieldschools/italy.
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