50th annual staff art exhibition

Every year, the Benton Museum here at the UCONN Storrs campus exhibits the permanent, adjunct, and visiting studio art faculty from the Department of Art and Art History, School of Fine Arts at UConn. The exhibit runs January 12th to March 12th, 2017. The opening reception is Thursday February 2,2017 from 4:30 pm 6:30 pm .A variety of works is featured at the museum. The work varies from sculpture, to painting to graphic design. As an art major, I had the honor to work closely with these professors and connect with them. It's amazing to think that they are full time teachers and still be able to create such amazing works of art.

During my freshman year, I took a course with Frank Noelker, Professor of Photography, who focuses on images of animals in zoos and other captivities. His work was published in a book called “Captive Beauty”. He has works being displayed in in Boston, Massachusetts’s galleries and in New York. Specifically, he specializes in printing life-size photos of the animals, such as chimpanzees. The detail that is revealed from looking at the large prints allow for the subjects in the pictures to show true emotion on how the animal feels behind the cage.

Another artist featured in the exhibit is Brandon Bultman, a RISD grad student and my professor in a "metal sculptures" course I am currently taking. For the staff exhibition, he created ocean buoys made of PVC coated polyester fabric that has been radio frequency welded. Radio frequency welding or (high frequency welding) is the process of bonding together materials through the use of electromagnetic energy.

The surface on the buoys reads: APHELION: WE ARE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE FROM THE SUN

APOGEE: WE ARE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE FROM THE EARTH

MORTAL AGONY: WE ARE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE FROM DEATH

APATHY: WE ARE AS FAR AS POSSIBLE FROM SUFFERING

The text is taken from Jean Baudrillard's Fragments.

I emailed Brandon and asked him to tell me more about his installation at the exhibit and he replied to me with, “I created this work with political and ecological uneasiness at the front of my mind. We are more technologically advanced than we have ever been, but seem to be less and less concerned with each other and our planet” Brandon's quote relates to today's political, social and environmental issues. As we all know that our current president does not believe in climate change. I feel honored that other artists are using their works to stand up to what they believe in.

In the world that is Humanities, and dealing with people, it’s nice to see that some of those people have a creative mind. It was a privilege to work alongside such amazing artists, share my creative side with them, and hear what they have to say about my work. Seeing what they created in a museum setting makes me think back on all they taught me in the the past. Not many people in the world can think creatively and use their ideas to create a political and social statement. Many artists overlap with the real world because you need to be good with your voice and communication, not just a paintbrush. Just like an art exhibit I will keep the talking to minimum and let their work speak itself.