The 2004 Student Exhibition features an eclectic collection as varied in concept as it is in the material and media utilized. Animation, sculpture, painting, photography, furniture, pottery and mixed media works are brought together in this collage of Brown student talent, currently on display in the David Winton Bell Gallery in the List Art Center.
The front lobby displays "Chair and 10,000 Pins," by Amanda Norman '04, the pins protruding out in a yellow halo.
In the same room, the animated "First Kiss," by Chris Smith '05, captures the morbid sexual awkwardness between a despondent pair of figures in a macabre style reminiscent of cartoonist Roman Dirge. "Squirrel Wallpaper," by Beth Brandon '04, covers the far wall to the left of "Rorschach in Blot," by Katherine Mann '05, an abstract blob of conglomerated little creatures loosely defined by sets of cartoonish eyes and ambiguous little hairs.
The majority of the exhibit is housed in the gallery adjacent to the lobby. In the middle of the room, "Anatomically Correct Passionflower," knitted by Tatyana Yanishevsky '05.5, floats three feet off the ground, attracting visitors with its textured, bulbous mohair sex organs encircled by a large canopy of patterned lavender petals.
This seductive creature all but dwarfs its counterpart, "Plant with Root Modules," another attempt to capture biological floral aesthetic with yarn.
A corner piece by Jamie Kaufman '04 precariously balances an exploded desk within a mountain of newspaper spanning some 15 feet of vertical space.
Overwhelmed by information, the structure of the organizational instrument succumbs to violence and destruction. A similar collegiate frustration is captured in her peeling chalkboard in the main lobby.
The written text, actually notes from a comparative literature class, begins with "I have completed the construction of myself" and ends with scribbles, doodles and bizarre, perplexing queries like "Who is the beast?"
The right side of the board peels and melts, unable to support the text, betraying the same weakness under the stress of information as the desk. A small white putty knife, presumably the author's destructive instrument of choice, is wedged against the chalkboard's bottom frame.
Peeking into the interactive video box in the main hall and powering its rotating crank, one can experience the detailed mechanical drawings of Michelle Higa '04 as they move, rotate and click over abstracted urban skylines. In another technologically inspired mixed media composition, "Mapping, Red?" Ellen Schneiderman '05 plays with a range of materials, layering paint over stretched fabric that creates a resemblance to a topographical map. Using subtle complementary color combinations, Schneiderman responds to the weave of cloth playing on the pattern but occasionally disassociates with it using light application of oils.
Some of the more comical pieces include a painting by Zeynep Saygin '05 of a woman's breast spilling out of a dark pink corset. The lush reds and pinks, the provocative breast and "full Renaissance gear" including the enormous lace collar, pokes fun at Baroque painting, particularly Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens. "Some people take their work too seriously," Saygin said at the opening to explain the joke.
The hyperrealist, starkly light emptiness of "Gas For Less," by Anna Knoell '04, evokes an isolation similar to that of Edward Hopper. The mouthwatering "Juicy Fruit on Canvas," by Risa Puno '04, references abstract expressionism using sweet-smelling gum instead of paint, making one want to not only touch but also gnaw at the art on the wall.
These and other remarkable student works will be on display at the Winton Bell Gallery through April 4.
