In the EMU’s Adell McMillan Gallery, art prints depicting isolation, environmental destruction and abandonment hang on the walls and occupy the middle of the space. One of them, titled “Leftovers,” is a collage of garbage stuffed inside a clear quilt resembling a plastic bag. The pieces in the “Lost/Found” exhibit, created by UO design students with mediums like cyanotype, photography and miscellaneous objects, are intentionally torn and stitched, displaying little regard for aesthetics. They are art pieces presented in the context of life in a dystopian world.
“My intention with my art is to draw people away from the disconnected aspects of modern society,” said Lily Cronn, a BFA student and graphic designer who contributed to the exhibit. “We are very much removed from nature. We don’t know where our food comes from, and we look at our phones all day. I want people to realize we are one with nature in a lot of ways.”
In Cronn’s piece, “Untitled,” she uses the cyanotype method, a form of print with cyan-blue dye, to create an eerily blue pigment on her two torn canvases. “Untitled” depicts two hands floating in a blue space collecting pieces of trash. The hands are shown as plants growing from the ground. On one canvas, a hand is tangled in roots, decomposing into fragments. The other hand sprouts branches covered in leaves from its wrist.
According to Cronn, the hands represent a disembodied human overtaken by a world of plants. The artist is critical of the destruction of the environment and frustrated by witnessing people ignore nature.
“My work is somewhat political in regards to climate change,” Cronn said. “My generation has seen the world change so dramatically. I grew up hiking and being outside a lot. It is very distressing to me, and I try to convey the anxiety into my pieces.”
Reproducing and revitalizing discarded pieces of trash is a core element within “Lost/Found.” In Noelle Herceg’s piece “Residue Medallions,” she repurposes discarded plastic drinking bottle caps and transforms them into crystal medallions. Herceg, a master in fine arts student, takes liquids lying around her studios such as glue, dyes, coffee and wine to produce an array of designs and colors.
“Whatever liquid residue I had during the week, I would pour them into my collected bottle caps,” Herceg said. “I fill them into the containers to solidify and then peel them out.”
Herceg uses “overlooked and not special” materials in her pieces. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, art studios often generate hazardous substances that have the potential to cause damage to groundwaters and the atmosphere. Unlike other artists, Herceg repurposes neglected objects in her everyday life like old dyes or bottle caps that are often buried away in dumps. The extra material she uses captures the beauty of nature in a primal state.
“People are responding to the relationships I have with material,” Herceg said. “Spending more time with what you are discarding makes people think deeply about their waste within art or in life. Hopefully, the viewers will question what they are leaving behind.”
The “Lost/Found” exhibit reminds viewers of the damages humanity has created in the last few decades. The artists examine ways humans can heal the planet before it is too late.
“You can’t separate humans from the environment,” Herceg said. “It is a fluid relationship and intermingling. Whatever we are doing leaves a positive or negative effect.”
“Lost/Found” is located at the Erb Memorial Union’s Adell McMillan Gallery. The exhibit is viewable in person with a UO ID through May 22. It is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m to 10 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. A virtual talk and exhibit tour will also be available on the UO Visual Arts Team Instagram.
