The works of eight artists cover the Aidekman gallery, each separated into its own exhibition space. Photographs, videos, sculptures and oil paintings decorate the walls and floors, creating a lively, disparate collection that challenges visitors to examine their own perspectives even as it shows them a new point of view.
The exhibition is the January installment of the Aidekman Gallery's Thesis Exhibitions. Every year, the gallery works in conjunction with Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston to showcase the works of students enrolled in the joint degree program at the two institutions.
The artists featured this month all come from different backgrounds and each uses a different technique or approach to communicate his or her ideas about the subject matter.
Chandra Meesig may be a photographer, but her interest focuses on the side of photographs that most people never see - literally. She spent two years taking pictures of the backs of old photographs, the results of which make up her thesis exhibition.
At first glance, all of Meesig's photographs look alike - plain, mute canvasses similar in that they are all varying shades of tans and browns - but subtle differences emerge upon closer examination. Small cracks and variations are visible from photograph to photograph: an ink stain here, a dark smear there. The simplicity of Meesig's subject matter allows the viewer to interpret the calming image for himself.
The work of Maria Raponi similarly depends on one's point of view, but this time, it does so in an entirely literal way. Raponi describes in her artist's statement that she has always been fascinated by stereoscopes and the cinema. For her thesis, she created small dioramas of movie sets that offer minute changes in perspective as the viewer steps to one side or the other.
The miniscule dioramas are presented from the viewpoint of a character within the film, and the result is a dizzy, tilted perspective that often demands to be examined twice. Everything is just a bit off-kilter, from the theater seat that looks down onto a stage to the tiny ticking bicycle moving through Raponi's manufactured streets.
Samantha Fields began her thesis project with the idea that the walls of a house function as a literal boundary in our everyday lives, separating the indoors from the outdoors. In the course of her work on the exhibit, "The Game of Life: Atopia," she dislocated objects from their prior life in order to give them a new purpose by using them in her sculptures.
More than anything, Fields' work looks like an otherworldly playground: a carousel made of painted chairs sits to the side, while a wheelchair blended out of yarn and furniture legs turns in the middle. To the side is a swing-set, sitting on top of a pile of hand-knitted rugs, while a welcome mat modeled off of the "Life" game board greets visitors to this strange world.
The sketches of Jason Bartsch look like they would be as much at home in the margins of someone's sketchpad as in an art gallery. However, his simple, cartoon-like style is eye-catching, even from across the room.
Bartsch's large-scale works, which are displayed on the wall, were derived from smaller original sketches, all of which are on display in albums alongside the final creations.
The subject matter of his drawings knows no bounds. Hung-over party victims exist alongside grumpy birds and cool, cell phone-chattering cats. In one sketch, called "In Love" (2003), two bushes hold leaf-like hands, beaming out at the viewer. Though none of them is related in theme, they all clearly capture the artist's sense of humor, as well as his belief that "laughter is the best medicine."
Also on display are the works of Jay Bordage, Latoyna Hicks, Luanne Stovall and Vanessa Platacis.
The current collection is the second of the 2004-2005 school year. It will remain on display through this weekend.
Art, as much as anything else, is about challenging perspectives and creating something new. With the culmination of the January Thesis Exhibition this weekend, whether they use dioramas or oil paintings, it is clear that each of the featured artists has succeeded in showing the world their individual perspectives.
