Featuring the works of 45 artists from the Brown community, the 27th annual Student Art Show at the David Winton Bell Gallery suggests the University's visual arts program is moving in a more avant-garde direction. The show contains many esoteric works, which satisfy the artistic-savant crowd but may confuse others.
The show does succeed in presenting a wide range of mediums and subjects that celebrate the variety of working methods found at Brown. But this diversity seems strained in its execution, sacrificing content for variety.
The most striking works are overwhelmingly found in the media of photography, sculpture and video installation, which eclipse the offerings in painting and drawing.
Emily Roberts '08 dominates the show with her stop-motion animation film "Somedays," which weaves a rather strange but intriguing narrative about two anthropomorphic reels of yarn and Grant Wood's painting "American Gothic." Choreographed in time with Regina Spektor's song "Somedays," the flawlessly executed video showcases the artist's unique skill in handling a technical medium while maintaining the integrity of her creative voice.
"Baer," a photograph by Tasha Ong '07 is tragically odd. Ong depicts a young woman sprawled on the ground surrounded by a pool of blood. A stuffed dead bear has fallen on top of her from a doorway. The work is staged in a matter-of-fact manner, as though a bear might naturally find its way into a house to attack a human victim.
The metal and glass sculpture by Julie Kumar '07, titled "Concentric," presents an exploration of magnetism that reflects the artist's technical knowledge. It consists of several metal cables with round magnets attached to their ends. The subtly impressive sculpture is held together through a manipulation of magnetic fields, a process that requires a great deal of consideration and knowledge of physics.
Sarah Goldstein's '09 "Angular Fish-translated," a hanging fish sculpture assembled from found objects that include an electric plug, a hair dryer, paintbrushes and a shiny, red, vinyl make-up case, reminds the viewer that whimsical art can be successful.
The work of Lauren Fisher '07 in her mixed media piece, "I killed him because I loved him," also presents an innovative mix in its juxtaposition of ocean sounds, a sculpted octopus and a real fish.
The paintings, with the exception of a few works, heavily favor non-representational pieces. "Mapping Time and Space" by David Lloyd '08 seems intriguing in its dripping lines of black and white but lacks an accompanying explanation that would lend it more substance.
In response to the high number of entries rejected from the student show this year, Janelle Sing '07, Bevan Weissman '07 and Valeria Khislavsky '07 have organized "The Reject Show," to be held the first week in May. The organizers say they will accept any submissions that were not accepted into the Student Art Show.
The Student Art Show runs through Sunday, April 1.
