May
2 , 2003 Senior
Art Exhibition Opening May 4
|
Photo:
Fred LeBlanc
Senior
Ali Hebert and sculptures. |
Linseed
oil, printing inks, freshly sawn wood—every art studio smells
like the materials that art is made from. But the scent greeting
visitors to the senior art studio last week was a bit out of the
ordinary. Juicy Fruit? Spearmint? It emanated from senior Chi
Weindel's space, where she has been patiently crafting a
six-foot-tall sculpture titled Gum Tree, made of brightly
colored pieces of chewing gum stretched and layered over an armature
of steel rods
and wire. She started the piece during her advanced studio class
last fall, in response to an assignment to make an artwork "in
memoriam." She decided to memorialize "the gross"
and embarked on several months of gum chewing, even recruiting
family and friends to help out.
Weindel, who has a
double major in art and biology and is doing a thesis on the genetics
of orchids, is one of seventeen seniors whose work will be shown
in the annual Senior Art Majors' Exhibition, which opens
at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum Sunday, May 4, with a
reception from 3 to 5 pm.
The exhibition of paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs
will be larger than usual, says Associate Professor of Art Joseph
Smith, who is the faculty coordinator. "This year we have
more art majors graduating than ever before. Both the quality
and quantity of work are especially high. In order to accommodate
all the work, the museum has been incredibly generous in building
two new walls in the lobby."
In addition to Gum Tree, Weindel will show some of her
prints, which she makes using multiple techniques, including woodblock,
screenprint, stamping, and intaglio. In the complex, multilayered
pieces that she describes as "maps of the body," some
of the images are derived from X rays and MRIs ("I tend
to get sick a lot," she says). Other prints feature the
observant line drawings of plants one might expect from a biologist.
Another piece she may show is a two-by-eight-foot collage that's
displayed on the floor, under a sheet of clear plastic. Made of
fragments of failed prints, rejected sketches, abandoned ideas,
even actual plants, it represents the "detritus,"
as she puts it, of the process of art making.
Ali Hebert, an art major with a minor in English, started out
as a biology major because it was "practical," but
eventually switched to art. Says Hebert, "All my work deals
with gender, specifically transgender issues and genderlessness."
One of Hebert's sculptures, a white reclining figure made
of plaster, cheesecloth, joint compound, and paraffin, has a masculine
body but female genitalia; it is titled Lounging Hermaphrodite.
It's meant as a play on a Greek sculpture of a sleeping
hermaphrodite, which Hebert encountered in a class on Hellenistic
art. While researching a paper on the sculpture, Hebert says,
"I came across this theory behind the hermaphrodite. If
you look at it, it's pretty much a woman with male genitalia
and, according to the Greek ideal, the woman's body was
the more beautiful but the male sex was the better sex. So if
you had the reverse of that, a male body with female genitalia,
that would have been ugly and useless to them. I was like, 'Ha,
I'll show you!' "
Both Hebert and Weindel say they are ready for a break from the
rigors of course work. Hebert's plans for life after Mount
Holyoke aren't yet finalized but they will definitely include
making art. "Pretty much any kind of job would interest
me," Hebert says, because "I like to go around and
collect experiences." Weindel will be going back to her
home state of Rhode Island and hopes to show her artwork in Providence.
She envisions going on to graduate school in biology and this
summer will be preparing for the GRE. No doubt a visit to the
dentist is also in her future: "Basically, I've got
two cavities right now," she says, "due to the extensive
chewing."
Other students participating in this year's exhibition are
Tijana Antonic, Courtney Brizendine, Cindy Cheng, Jillian Cicchini,
Erika Frain, Sarah Gilliam, Sarah Kennedy, Keiko Mori, Fahra Muradali,
Eileen Murphy, Lisa Nonken, Alison Paquette, Aysha Rahman, Jennifer
Steinnagel, and Razia Tyebjee. Their work will remain on display
through May 24. Hours are Tuesday through Friday, 11 am–5
pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 1–5 pm. For more information,
visit www.mtholyoke.edu/go/artmuseum
or call x2245.
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