Control

Posted by Melissa Dow in Visual Arts

Located in the Southwest Annex, visual artists Davis Craig, Hector Hernandez and Sarah Canelas exhibit their BFA thesis shows. Opening night was pretty successful, with family, friends and alumni among the attendants. The installments will be up through Dec. 14.

Craig’s installation included a wall with one side that featured a mosaic of a pansy made out of individually colored smaller pansy and the other another mosaic laying on the floor. “It’s all about growing up between a heterosexual world and being gay,” Craig said. Craig used the sometimes derogatory term “pansy” to create this really beautiful piece. Even without knowing the artist’s intent behind this really personal piece, an internal dialogue can still be made between the art and the viewer. The same thing can be done with Hernandez’s art.

Hernandez’s sculptures are abstract. They leave interpretation entirely up to the viewer. For most of the artwork, it was all about the perspective in which the display was viewed; looking at it from a different angle made all the difference in what was seen and what was obscured. This was particularly noticeable in the mounted triangle sculpture with blue lighting and orange paint. Hernandez said this sculpture was about, “Seeing how the color interacts within a frame. Color hits all the intersections of the triangle.”

Canelas’ work was broken into three parts that were connected in a whole. There was a wicker chair on display, a video of a dark walkway on loop and Canelas herself between the two displays braiding fabric together in a long chain. “It’s partly performance art,” Canelas said, “partly installation, but it feels like all one thing to me. This whole installation originated from an experience I had over the summer at a program I went to at Yale …which is where the video was taken. The experience there left me thinking about elitism and hierarchy and it creates a dialogue with the chair taken from St. John’s College. And a craft circle creates a conversation for the two art worlds.” People came and sat down and Canelas would pass the braid to another person who would continue its progress. “Historically, fabric arts were known for the conversations,” Canelas said, “I was hoping more people would come and sit down to talk because in these gallery environments it can be intimidating to talk with the artist.” Canelas is going to continue to braid the rope while the show is still going on.  She encourages people to come and sit next to her.

These displays are the culmination of several semesters of hard work and they are really interesting to view in person. You can’t really get the scope of these displays unless you see them for yourselves. Control will be on display in the Southwest Annex with viewing from 5:30 to 7 p.m. through Dec. 14.