Sculpture Studio Spring 2012

Summaries of Four Art Events

Codex Aubin
On January 31, 2012, Dr. Angela Rajagopalan, an Assistant professor from the University of North Carolina, in Charlotte, NC, visited the St. Mary’s College campus to present her research from investigations in 16th century manuscripts from Mexico; specifically, the Codex Aubin.

The Codex Aubin, also referred to as the “Code of 1576,” when it was believed to have been written. This book recorded the migration of the Aztec people from their homeland of Aztlan to the city of Tenochtitlan, which is now known as Mexico City. Much of the information contained within this book was depicted by hand-drawn illustrations. However, the book also had a large amount of multi-lingual alphabetic writing.

In addition to the Codex Aubin, Dr. Rajagopalan also described two other manuscripts which were also written during the 16th century: Codex Azcatitlan and Codex Boturini. The Codex Boturini was written before the Codex Azcatitlan and is believed to have acted as a model for the Azcatitlan. The Codex Azcatitlan was written later in the 16th century and acted as a narrative, describing colonial events, and was primarily pictorial.

The Codex Aubin is believed to have been written for the reference of the community leaders in a particular area. After surviving through periods of censorship, the Codex Aubin finally arrived at its current location in the British Museum in London.

Martin Brief

On March 5, 2012, the artist Martin Brief gave an artist talk in which he presented six of his recent text-based projects.

The first project he presented was the Newspaper Series. It is a project Brief has been working on since 2006. For this series, Brief chose newspapers at random from a period between his birth date and the present. Using 24x33 inch sheets of tracing paper, Brief copied the counters (the empty spaces of letters) of lower case letters and filled them with ink, creating hundreds of tiny black dots in differing patterns on each sheet.

The second project that he presented was his Dictionary Series, also started during 2006 and continues to the present.  In this project, Brief creates a drawing for each page in a Webster dictionary. For each drawing, Brief outlines the columns of text present on the page with ink.

The third project Brief presented was the Artforum Series. For this series, Brief uses several issues of Artforum magazine. With each issue, Brief would write down every name present in the magazine. He then copied the names onto a 10½ x 10½ inch square. Each work in the series would vary by the amount of names present in each issue.

The fourth series presented by Brief was his Truisms Series. In this series, Brief explored the Truisms created by the artist Jenny Holzer. For each truism, Brief wrote out the definition of each word.

The fifth series Brief presented was Amazon God. Started in 2010, Brief looked up the keyword ‘GOD’ when searching for books on Amazon.com and was presented with over several hundred results. Brief divided the results into 28 categories, such as cooking, health, etc., and listed the book titles in each category. In each drawing, the word ‘GOD’ in the title was aligned with the one above it.

The sixth and final project Brief presented in the talk was titled Success. This project, just finished in October of last year, consists of a single work that took nearly a year to complete. The work consists of the word ‘success’, and then the definition of the word, followed by the definition of each word used in the definition of ‘success’, and so on.

Department of Art and Art History: SMP Show I

                  On April 16th, 2012 the completed St. Mary’s Projects of three Art students were presented in the Boyden Gallery. These works are the results of a year-long cumulative project by St. Mary’s students during their senior year. In this show, the works of students Remina Greenfield, Laura Hausheer, and Elise Kielek were presented for viewing by the St. Mary’s College community as well as the surrounding community of St. Mary’s County.

                  For her SMP, Remina Greenfield created a series of four video projections. Each projection started as a simple recording of one of her peers as she interviewed them. As the interview progresses, images and pieces of video acquired from the interviewees web space appears on their face. Soon, the person’s face is covered in videos and images, with the interviewee’s face still present beneath them. The goal of Greenfield’s work is not to make people “fear technology, but to initiate a more thoughtful consideration of the ways it affects us.”

                  In the SMP of Laura Hausheer, she has created a series of black paper that have been cut to create a variety of images. Each of these images is presented and creates a narrative to her final work, a child’s book that Hausheer wrote herself called Hats Off to Charli. In the book, a little girl experiences a revelation of self-discovery as she explores an unfamiliar city.
                  The third SMP presented in this show was that of Elise Kielek. Her works contained a series of large photographs, each depicting the interior of a house. Only a small section of each photograph is in focus; the rest of the image is blurred, giving the viewer the experience like that of a dream. Kielek’s goal is to represent “a possible reality, but one that is skewed by impossibilities.”

Department of Art and Art History: SMP Show II

                  On April 30th, 2012, a second SMP show opened to the St. Mary’s College community. This exhibition showcased the works of Jenny Metz, Samantha Nickey, and Koko Olszewski.

                  For her SMP, Jenny Metz created a series of large photographs. Each image is a close up of a surface or object, sometimes recognizable, sometimes not, that have been taken in such a way that makes the viewer ambiguous as to the space displayed.

                  In Samantha Nickey’s SMP, she painted various images of moths. There are three very large monochromatic paintings, followed by several smaller paintings, each of a different part of a moth, such as a wing. In addition to the paintings, there is a large area that displayed Nickey’s concept sketches and paintings that led up to her final works.

                  The third SMP in the show was the work by Koko Olszewski. Within the gallery is a bulletin board covered in plans and input from the St. Mary’s College community. On the adjacent wall is a television that presents interviews from participants in Olszewski’s work. The real product of her SMP is located over in Anne Arundel Hall. Encompassing an empty section of the building, including an empty lounge area, a hallway, and five rooms, is a large mural, created through collaboration between the artist and the St. Mary’s College community. Large wisps of paint cover the walls. Words painted in cursive adorn the space above each door. Within the rooms, more paintings adorn the walls, including painted words of wisdom and inspiration from those within the college community.