Art students use technology, ordinary objects in works

Challenging traditional beliefs about what belongs in an art gallery, an iPod, rubber bands and a necklace are used to create artwork in a new display at the SoFA
Gallery.

The Ceramics, Graphic Design, Metals, Sculpture and Textiles Area Show features work from students in those fields created in their courses or spare time.

“Artists have the opportunity to work with new mediums and embrace them,” graphic design student Vida Sacic said.

Sacic used a 3-D poster, an iPod and a Web site to tell the story of a fictional character named Weaber.

Sacic used the iPod to make an electronic flip-book of images of Weaber, and the poster depicts the story behind the character’s birth. Using animation, the Web site also shows Weaber’s creation.

She said her pieces in the show display her illustrations in a way that cast her as both an artist and a storyteller.

“I’m trying to get people involved in a story that touches upon the human experience that they could relate to,” she said. “People are still getting used to seeing new technology in the gallery, but people are always curious to see the reaction to a piece like that.”

Fellow artist Chelsey Radabaugh drew upon personal experiences to create a sterling silver necklace with granulated sugar molded into stone-shaped pieces inside. She began working on the piece this summer after being diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.

“It started a serious, dramatic change in my lifestyle,” she said.

The piece, titled “Ephemeral Pleasure,” reflects the loss Radabaugh experienced, as she was not allowed to eat sweets after her diagnosis. The diamond-like sugar pieces eventually deteriorate, leaving only the metal skeleton of the necklace.

“I thought, ‘How can I show people what was precious to me that was taken away?’” she said.

Radabaugh spent three months researching how to create the effect with the sugar and plans to explore more uses for it in her work.

Sculpture student Anne Roecklein created a web-like installation out of colorful rubber bands traditionally used as a safety device for holding lobster claws in commercial lobstering. The floor-to-ceiling piece, titled “Desire/Safety Net 5,” questions the relationship between safety and danger, as well as the thrill of capture.

“I have been exploring the activity of fishing to address my interest in desire and to find metaphorical strategies, forms and tools of desire, such as lures, nets and materials,” she said.

Visitors to the exhibit can walk around the vibrant collection of bands, and Roecklein hopes viewers contemplate the potential purposes of the sculpture.

A ceramics piece also challenges viewers to question what they see. Ceramics student Carrie Longley constructed a triptych, a three-piece form of artwork, that looks as if it should be viewed in a science lab rather than an art gallery.

Longley created three pieces that appear to be preserved organisms rather than clay molds. Displaying her work in glass jars, Longley wants to get a reaction out of viewers as they observe her artwork.

“I hope they are confused,” she said. “I hope I can create a sense of wonder in them. I want to make them question whether it’s a specimen or art, and question why it’s in an art gallery.”

With new innovations and creativity, Longley says that artists continue to defy fixed perceptions on artwork.

“For a viewer to question whether it’s a piece if art or a specimen is a valid question now,” she said.