ArtWorks opened the semester with an interactive, introspective, and beautiful show. Running from January 12th to 24th, the show featured work by the JMU Masters of Fine Arts artists.
The Old Furnace Artists Residency set up camp. The installation included a tent and turf with sleeping bags and pillows and invited guests inside for an experience. Nearby was a shelf of books, notes, fruit, and other trinkets. On the other side was a table of paper, supplies, and envelopes and instructions to sit, contemplate, and create, then put it in an envelope. Guests of all ages returned to the table all night, drawing, writing, and creating, and crawling or peeking into the tent.
Multimedia works had guests contemplating identity and self. The portraits integrated social media into missing faces.
Large, dark portraits adorned one wall. The adjacent wall featured columns of prints of writing. The words were about an inner turmoil, a depression. Guests viewed the piece from a distance to take the work in as one, and stood feet from the prints to read the meaningful words within.
Woven pieces of cords and technical equipment were mounted on the edges of walls. The tiny, tight details and stacks popped out into the space. A wood and paper sculpture in the middle of the room added to the texture, bringing people around.
One wall played a projected video on a stiff, heavy white-painted canvas, thick with layers of paint. The video playing was of the canvas being painted, over and over, all different ways. Some guests watched the whole thing, others stayed briefly, some returned several times to piece together the full video of the canvas painted over itself. The work was intriguingly beautiful and sparked conversation all around it.
The show was a great opening for the semester, bringing in many guests and providing an interactive visual experience.
