Last Friday, the Art@Tech Program introduced the much-anticipated Clough Art Crawl. This exhibit was originally scheduled to open with the Arts Festival. Due to inclement weather, those who wished to see the display of student artwork were forced to wait another two weeks.
This delayed opening has put into question the closing date of the exhibit, which was set to end on Mar. 1, the day after it opened. It has been announced that the Clough Art Crawl will run until Mar. 15, preserving the originally planned duration of two weeks, noticeably less than the month-long showcase of last year.
Although the student-made artwork will be displayed for a shorter time than the 2013 Art Crawl, it is no less impressive. The exhibit includes pieces as simple as a well-timed photograph or as intricate as a detailed painting. In addition to the typical two dimensional artwork, the Clough Art Crawl includes several interesting interpretations of art.
One such example is Shrinka Roy’s upcycled dress that is currently untitled. This Mechanical Engineering student decided to create a pretty white dress from reused or recycled materials. Forming what is commonly defined as trash into art is a skill not many people can act upon and embrace.
Another interesting piece is Phebe Tam’s Hayao Miyazaki Island. This diorama is dedicated to the Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki. Tam’s art includes scenes from four of Miyazaki’s films. Ponyo is perhaps the easiest reference to see. In the foreground of the diorama is a wave with representative pink dots surrounding a small model of Ponyo herself, surfing atop the wave. The other three films included in the tribute to Miyazaki are Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Castle in the Sky. Each of these films has a unique theme that is diligently depicted in Tam’s work.
While Phebe Tam is an Architecture student, not a recognized professional artist, this is high praise of Miyazaki. Most turn to TV or books, the receiving end of creativity, for entertainment purposes. For Tam, and all who are part of the Art Crawl, receiving the creativity of others was not enough. The mere fact that the Clough artists gave up their precious time, sacrificing studying to create the pieces on display is noteworthy.
Whether a student likes being on the receiving end or the one propagating creativity, the Art Crawl will oblige. Those who enjoy perusing the creativity of others need only wander through Clough’s second, third and fourth floors any day this week to be inundated with fanciful masterpieces submitted by their peers.
Some of the artwork, though, is not fanciful in the slightest. Kate Napier’s Reimagine the Image of God, for example, is a religious piece that attempts to challenge a commonly held belief. Mollie Taylor’s Proximity to Nature argues that people do not have to go far to find sanctuary from hectic city life. As a matter of fact, this piece shows that nature can be found without leaving the city.
Of course, how could an art display be complete without someone submitting purposefully inflammatory works? This year, the Clough Art Crawl includes Mohammad Khan’s FYI, FYE, which displays a yelling man surrounded in blood with the words “[F***] Your Ethnicity” scrawled across the entire work.
The description that goes with FYI, FYE explains what the artist was thinking, and actually makes the piece seem rather like a well-thought-out position cleverly disguised as bigoted absurdity. However, it is left to the beholder to determine if the artist intended it as such or simply lucked in to an excuse.