Portraying perceptions of reality can be a tricky business.
Through April 18, the Miriam & Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery on the 8th floor of Schermerhorn is hosting the artistically rendered reality of first-year graduate students in Columbia’s MFA program.
The first thing one encounters upon entering the exhibit is a collage of doctored pop culture references such as manipulated New York Post covers with the text “Throw yourself on the track, Jack!” and changed ABBA album covers, sketches, lists, and other small papers. At eye level sits a large poster of an angry girl pointing a cocked gun at the viewer. This “Wall of Ephemera” dictates the nihilistic tone of the rest of the exhibit.
Although there are over 25 young artists from the visual arts program featured, and overlap in artistic styles is undeniable, the artists managed to retain individuality through their wide range of materials. They used materials ranging from HD projection media to wood to linen in order to convey the images and ideas of critical postmodernism.
Many pieces in the exhibit are interactive. While traditional museum works often restrict visual arts to only the visual, the artists on display engage multiple senses by linking the auditory with the visual to create a more holistic experience. Through the use of video projection, Leidy Churchman’s “The bottoms’ quite nice” even tries to link present experiences with the sights and sounds associated with a traditional painting’s creation.
The lone visitor to the gallery seemed unimpressed by the graduates’ artworks: “I am not blown away,” he said. Despite his lack of enthusiasm, the visitor added that he “definitely saw some I [he] liked,” like Naama Tsabar’s rocker video titled “Untitled (babies).” Tsabar’s work seems at first like an MTV music video for a garage-bred punk rock band. However, the ending shows the lead singer trying to smash an unbreakable guitar. Frustrated, she continues swinging the guitar, only to splinter the stage and eventually quit from fatigue.
Many of the works provide clear and incisive social commentary. Jon Cuyson’s “How the Swans Came to the River (Hell on Earth)” for example, uses borrowed books from Butler Library and a folding table along with metallic paints and rocks, to comment on the hell induced by the burden of homework that all students experience during midterms or finals.
A work by N. Dash, titled “Light Touch,” puts a new spin on the classic, biblical image of “let there be light” by depicting a hand turning on a light bulb. By specifically using long, cylindrical fluorescent bulbs, Dash highlighted the shift towards sustainability and energy consciousness.
The exhibit does not radiate warmth and happiness. Its merits lie in appreciating the hard work of young artists we may pass smoking outside of Dodge—and their ability to vividly translate images from their thoughts on the world around them into various media.
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