“Make. Work” makes memories

The faculty exhibition I attended as a first-year student two years ago stands out as an important moment toward me “getting” contemporary art. This year, “Make. Work.” again presents a diverse range of playful and experimental artwork.

Sculpture and drawing professor Adriana Kuiper recycled remnants from a project created with fellow Sackville artist Ryan Suter during their artist’s residency in the Magdalen Islands. For the original piece, patterned quilts referencing the island’s formations were installed in a mobile recording booth. Along with sound blankets and found materials, these quilts soundproofed the installation. Within the space, the artists recorded locals telling stories of isolation and loss.

Savannah Mileen Harris/The Argosy
Savannah Mileen Harris/The Argosy

At the faculty exhibition, Kuiper and Suter’s re-purposed materials serve as a nest for a radio. As the viewer walks around observing the artwork, the radio fades back and forth between static and voices.  “It’s a place to play,” Kuiper said, highlighting the interactive nature that characterizes the faculty exhibition.

Shows with many independent artists can easily lack thematic cohesion. At the faculty exhibition, 12 artists present individual works in a group context without an overarching theme. However, the playful nature of many of the artworks help generate, as Kuiper suggests, a thematic overtone of inquisitive exploration.

For example, Leah Garnett’s work, titled “This,” whimsically links with Adriana Kuiper’s piece titled “That.” Paul Griffin and Erik Edson’s pieces both appropriate and manipulate the functionality of sporting equipment, demonstrating their shared interest in examining unconventional uses of materials and their connotations. Thaddeus Holownia’s photograph, “Classical Texting,” is the type of work that must be mentioned but not described, since that would spoil the fun for you.make-work-03-savannah-bw

The faculty exhibition serves as an important entrance point for new students and those unfamiliar with faculty work to see the artistic creations of their professors.The exhibition also offers works-in-progress a risk-free space to be presented in.

“I think a lot of times [the faculty] shows things that they haven’t shown in Sackville,” said Edson, who is a printmaking professor and the exhibition’s coordinator. “One of the fun things about [the exhibition] is people put in things that they are in the process of making…In some ways it’s more intimate because they show things they wouldn’t normally show or wouldn’t show in that state.”

An essential and excellent exhibition for people interested in learning about the faculty’s projects, “Make. Work.” is on view at the Owens until Oct. 26.

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