Putting the Pieces Together
Some art tells, and some art shows. The best does both. This semester’s senior art show, Take Five, dabbles in both breadths of communication, leaving the audience with comments, and commentary, on the artists’ worlds.
The show borrows its name for the age-old colloquialism meaning “take a short break.” Chadron’s art program has pulled from its talent-box five colorful communicators: Kelly Overshiner, Tiffany Schank, Brittany Debord, Chris Green, and Nichole Folchert to populate this artistic oasis, on display in Memorial Hall’s Main Gallery until April 10. The show’s title, Take Five, also implies an ownership the audience earns once they walk through the gallery doors. “Take these artists,” the bright display lights seem to say, “and judge their worth.” Spread out on the sacrificial canvas, the five artists offer up the culminate works of their academic careers.
Nichole Folchert’s most elegant contributions, two watercolor pears, provided apt examples of a difficult medium rendered tasteful and refined. Also in her repertoire, Folchert’s graphic designs are simple and charming, two important characteristics in consumer-oriented design work.
Chris Green also chose to display his graphic design work, but his subtle and urbane designs were overshadowed by and interesting display called “anaglyph 3D collection.” This was a tv loop of digital photographs, featuring a young girl brandishing a snake at the camera. Blurry and dichromatic, the pictures don’t come into focus unless viewers don a pair of 3D glasses. Green’s exploration of traditional 3D methods is reminiscent of old 3D comics, a way-side art form he invites the audience to rediscover.
Kelly Overshiner’s assemblage brought an attentive tone to the show, with her pieces providing a broad life commentary. Her largest oil, a solar system strewn with broken computer parts, remarks about the steady filling of our astronomical sphere with waste. The technological bits litter the solar-scape, distracting from the natural beauty and reminding the viewer that waste not only pollutes our landfills, but our skies as well.
The quantity of Brittany Debord’s contribution to the show leaves a strong impression on the gallery audience, along with the quality of every piece. “Tiptoe through the Tulips,” a watercolor, demonstrates a lovely use of masking fluid. Her “Downtown Alley,” a photograph utilizing hand-tinting, combines a painting’s emotionality with photography’s precision. But by far, “From the Depths of the Heart” provides the most interesting commentary. A batik-dyed fabric with beads and buttons sewn across a sea of crazed threading, this piece presents a dark deconstruction of domesticity, breaking the girly norms and conceptions of craftwork.
Finally Tiffany Schank’s sculptures accentuated her peer’s work with a tactile flare. Her earthenware sculpture “Gramps,” is an homage to her grandfather, but unlike the niche of nostalgia pieces, the piece isn’t a caricature, but rather a sincere ode. Her capstone piece, a mechanical sculpture, is entitled “Nemean Lion.” The allusion is to the Greek myth of Hercules’ feline foe, and Schank said the sculpture’s creation was Herculean.
“It took the entire semester,” Schank said in a phone interview Tuesday. Her sculpture II class featured a guest speaker from Alliance, who purported how difficult mechanical sculpture is. Gauntlet thrown down, Schank accepted the challenge and emerged with the rusted Regulus.
Of the show, Schank said, “it’s a pretty diverse group, we have graphic designers, educators, and studio majors.”
All of these artists will be hosting a reception March 29, from 4-6 p.m. Take Five is visible from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., when the gallery’s open doors invite students to take a break from the pre-finals maelstrom and enjoy these five senior’s works. But just a warning: the show is good, so it might take more than five minutes to enjoy.