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By Monique Bos Visitors converged on Alexander Hall, 668 Indian St., April 9, 5-8 p.m., for the painting department’s spring-quarter Open Studio Night. The event, held every fall and spring, showcases student work in painting, ceramics and printmaking, which also are housed in Alexander Hall. Visitors can tour graduate painting studios, located on the second floor; observe and participate in installations; purchase work by students and alumni; meet students and faculty members; and view classrooms. In addition, a live band performs, and refreshments are served. A highlight of the April 9 event was the senior Bachelor of Fine Arts show, displayed in the first-floor galleries. “The undergraduates are exceptional,” said professor Suzanne Jackson. Graduate students used the opportunity to showcase their work, meet prospective clients, demonstrate how they set up their workspace and create their art, pose provocative questions and mingle with the public. “It’s so cutting-edge you have to wear armor,” said painting professor Brett Osborn. Jessica Clary, District editor in chief and a painting graduate student, said this was the first Open Studio Night in which she has participated. “It was stressful,” she said. “It was earlier than usual, so getting everything ready on time was scary.” However, she said the payoffs were worth the stress. “An 8-year-old kid wants [one of Clary’s pieces] for her bedroom, which is kind of cool,” she said. “Having people come into a private area is really reassuring, and it’s good to see what your peers are doing.” Another graduate student, Wei-Hui Hsu, transformed her studio into a representation of the female body. “Potential Cell No. 14, Walking into Wei-Hui’s Inner World” employed stretchable fabrics in shades of red, pink and peach, as well as transparent wire. Luke Homitsky, a graduate student who studied for two years in Beijing, China, donned an Asian jacket and a blindfold for his installation, “Truest I Ever Said,” in which he painted black brush strokes onto white paper. Illustration professor and painting graduate student Katherine Sandoz created impromptu portraits of visitors to her studio space. “People are coming in and talking, and I’m drawing them,” she said, “just seeing what’s going to happen.” According to Osborn, who has attended three Open Studio Nights, the event continues to improve. “I think it’s the best one [yet],” he said.
By Monique Bos The interactive design and game development department at the Savannah College of Art and Design is showcasing student work in “Entelechy” at Byte Café, 3515 Montgomery St., through April 22. Professor SuAnne Fu curated the exhibition, and work was selected by a jury of faculty members and representatives from Thirteen Thirty-Seven, the department’s student organization. Interactive design, game development, installations, conceptual art and Web design work by 30 students — including a few from the animation and visual effects departments — is featured. Student creations are displayed on large-screen and laptop monitors, as well as in other interactive forms. The game “Mild but Memorable,” a popular attraction at the opening reception April 7, delivers a mild shock to players, who try to navigate objects through wire tunnels using tweezers. According to the exhibition’s publicity materials, “Entelechy” (pronounced en-TELL-i-kee) is “the condition of a thing whose essence is fully realized; actuality,” and “a vital force that directs an organism toward self-fulfillment.”
By Monique Bos Graphic design professor Scott Boylston will read from and sign copies of his new book, “Season of Anecdote,” April 21 at Red Gallery, 201 E. Broughton St. The event begins with a 7 p.m. presentation by Sara Barczak, the regional director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, followed by Boylston’s reading at 7:30 p.m. and the signing at 8:30 p.m. Copies of “Season of Anecdote,” which features Boylston’s poetry and artwork, will be available at $10 per copy, with proceeds benefiting SACE. Boylston conceived the project — which he completed with assistance from a Presidential Fellowship for Faculty Development — after uncovering a stack of news articles he had clipped about environmental issues. “I had been saving them, but inevitably I had to ask to what purpose,” he said. “It seemed tragic that the stories covered in the articles — and they were long and heavily researched articles — were forgotten by most people before their morning coffee got cold. Even someone like me, who had bothered to save the articles in hopes of making their details more relevant to my daily thought process, could do no more than squirrel them away in a dusty corner where they did little more than take up space.” Incorporating his awareness of environmental and social issues into his work is a natural part of the creative process for him, he said. “I can’t remember a time when I was personally driven to make art for art’s sake,” he said. “It was always more connected to an urge to explore the human condition ... The act of living should be a day-by-day celebration — and I do my best to live by that rule — but art provides me with a means of exploring the more troubling aspects of human nature.” He decided to commemorate the news clippings by transforming them into the inspiration for “Seasons of Anecdote.” Boylston, whose fiction has been published in a number of journals including Convergence the Missouri Review, the Nebraska Review and Shenandoah, opted to use the medium of poetry in charting his reactions to news of environmental destruction. “I couldn’t imagine trying to write fiction about them (a genre I’m generally more comfortable working in), and there was no sense in writing essays about what were already bona fide news articles,” he said. “Each poem was a response to each new article on environmental damage I read in the paper. Unfortunately, I had no shortage of raw material to draw from.” He said the presidential fellowship allowed him to concentrate on completing the project. “The fellowship was extremely helpful in focusing my energy,” he said. “Once the fellowship was awarded, it was clear I had a unique opportunity to commit all of my energy to this one area. Knowing that funding would be there when I was prepared to go to press was very reassuring through the long and critical process of developing the project.” Boylston said he views the book, which is printed with soy ink on 100 percent post-consumer fiber, as an artifact that will inspire varied reactions in readers. “I wanted to make these disturbing stories of man’s negative influence on the natural environment more resistant to forgetting, for myself and for others,” he said. “The newspaper is as ephemeral a medium as we have, and it seemed that these stories suffered the same fate as the paper they were printed on — a day of usage followed by an eternity of disregard — despite the obvious long-term repercussions of each story’s contents.” Graduate student signs new book Aaron H. Bible, a Master of Fine Arts candidate in photography, signs copies of his book, “Portrait_Savannah,” at an April 15 release party. The event takes place at Iocovozzi Fine Art, 12 W. Harris St., 6:30 p.m. Bible’s work will be displayed at the gallery through May 1, when the exhibition moves to Hamilton Hall, 522 Indian St. SCAD photography professor Pete Christman contributed a forward to the book, which features black-and-white photographs that stress “the decisive moment, moments of vulnerability and views of everyday people offering insights into the human condition,” according to the event press release. Bible said he considers “Portrait_Savannah” the first in a series that will document his life “through the faces of those around him.” For more information, visit www.ahbmedia.com. |
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