Too cool for school

Students get their art on at Carnegie exhibit

By Eryk Salvaggio

Posted on April 10, 2006, at 12:00 a.m.

kevin reardon

IN THE HOUSE - Student Art exhibition on the first floor of Carnegie Gallery features works by student artists.

Early Friday evening, Carnegie Hall opened its doors for its last Student Art Show and Awards, considered the highlight of UMaine’s student exhibitions. Overflowing with students, faculty and supportive community members, the event is easily a highlight of Orono’s cultural landscape as well.

The work was spread out over Carnegie’s two floors, with more than 100 pieces in various media being shown, ranging from two-dimensional work to sculptural work, as well as new media and multimedia pieces.

One of the first and most engaging pieces was an installation work by Nathan Stevens called “From Me to You.” Set up in the corner of the gallery was a mock-up of Stevens’ work space, with a desk, laptop, and bulletin board covered with photos of his girlfriend, Anja Ipsen, residing in Germany. Stevens sat in a desk chair, writing a letter to Ipsen on small strips of paper which were being sliced into thin strips by a shredder suspended on the wall. The eventual goal, Stevens said, was to write a letter that could cover the entire distance from Veazie to Eckenforde, Germany, and then to release it via homing pigeon, which would carry a stream of paper behind it as it flew across the ocean. Aside from the poetic value, Stevens also joked that this method was cheaper than the postal service, saying that the overall length of paper would be 3,413 miles, or 1707 rolls of computer paper. He’s holding off on the bird for now.

Yeshe Parks presented two collage pieces in oil, incorporating texts from what appeared to be dictionaries and old books. “Deteriorating Daydreams” and “Uranographer” share themes of debris and fragile humanity, both incorporating the image of light bulbs as a paradoxical symbol of progress and landfills. Parks won three awards at the award ceremony later that evening. Another installation piece by Parks, “Family Ties,” consisted of vials of blood-red liquid suspended by caged balloons.

In photography, Heather Jovanelli showed an untitled photo, which also won an award that evening. The photo appears to be the shiny bay door of a steel transport truck, surrounded by clouds, which were reflected perfectly over the steel, effectively camouflaging an industrial locker in blue skies. Another series of photographs by Kevin Reardon, the “Nightclub” triptych, told a story in three elegant and vaguely anachronistic frames that evoked a Wes Anderson film filtered through a culture of indie rock videos.

Payson Welch presented two new media works, a digitally manipulated photo and a digital video, “Mixed Feelings” which looped on an iMac screen. Other mixed media works included “Idol and Ideal,” by Matthew Johnston, which appeared to be a weasel surrounded by steel wire. His other piece, titled “We’re Going to Sleep in the Wind Tonight, in the Wind Who is Laughing Wildly” in a nod to early 80s industrial band Laibach, is a pile of tattered clothing filled out by an invisible man, complete with Starbucks cup with a dollar inside. The piece is disturbingly easy to miss, by placement or by design, evoking the invisibility of the homeless on multiple levels.

As mentioned, this is likely to be the last student art show in Carnegie. With the opening on May 5 of Lord Hall as the new campus arts hub, most shows will be presented there. It was also the last show that will be presented with James Linehan as chair of the art department. Linehan was presented with a portrait of himself as a porcelain Bobblehead sitting on top of the new Lord Building. The sculpture was created by student artist Heidi Crahen.

Reaction to the show was almost unanimously positive.

“All of the work here is great, and having all these students out to see it is great,” said Owen Smith, a professor of art here at UMaine.

“I believe that more opportunities on campus for students to display art would be good for both artists and the whole campus, but I’m happy with the amount of opportunities I’ve had so far.” said Matthew Johnston. Artist Sarah Cormier disagreed. “Usually the only time students’ artwork is on display is during certain shows at Carnegie Hall,” she said, adding, “The art department building isn’t a place where most of campus would be walking through.”

With the variety and quality of work on display at Carnegie Hall for the student art show, it would appear we would have plenty of talent to justify shows in a more public and centered location on campus, such as smaller series of rotating, high-profile solo or group art shows at the Union or Fogler Library.

The Student Art Exhibition is on two floors of the Carnegie Galleries through May 6.

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