If you’ve ever walked into the Sage Art Center, you’ve seen the ASIS gallery. It’s a space that displays almost exclusively student work, with the present exhibit, Lines of Inquiry, showcasing the products of four students’ fall semester independent studies. According to Art New York and Studio Art Program Manager, Megan Metté, the mission of the gallery is, “geared toward the students, to provide space for the students.” Each display is up for around two to four weeks at a time.
When you enter the space, you’ll first encounter works from Alex Garlock, a senior majoring in Studio Art and Psychology. Three of the pieces are inspired by drawings of children, which are also hanging in the galley. She also has a puppet on display, “Alex.”
What you’ll probably notice immediately about her work is that some of it moves. “Mouse” is sat on a turntable with paint brushes spinning around it and is made, in part, of aluminum cans. Another piece, entitled “Elephant,” features “unnaturally blue water,” said Garlock, flowing from the titular animal’s trunk primarily made of paper mache. Both pieces are mixed media.
Garlock’s favorite piece is “Dream,” her interpretation of a child’s rendition of an underwater seascape made with melted candy, including Jolly Ranchers. It’s her favorite in part due to the time commitment to complete the piece, but when she was finished, “I’m like, holy cow, this is – it was worth the work.” It was also the hardest to make. Garlock said they hadn’t realized, “how much chemistry was in candy.”
Finding materials isn’t a straightforward process for Garlock, who described their art as “very intuitive.” Regarding figuring out what to use, they said, “I tried my best to just kind of be a yes man, you know, say yes to everything … nothing was too dumb, nothing was too big or too outlandish, and if it didn’t work, I’d try a different turn.”
To the far left of the exhibit is the work of junior Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Studio Arts major Eva Naik. Naik’s work is also mixed media, using wood, acrylic, ink, watercolor, and more. As per her work’s label, she’s exploring her cultural identity as a first-generation American and South-Asian heritage through her pieces.
On the label, she wrote that she was examining “how geometric shapes along with repetition can be used to reflect my own internal balancing act of culture and heritage” for these pieces. Repetition can be seen in their titles as well, which are called “First Generation American I,” “First Generation II: Repetition,” “First Generation American III,” and “First Generation American IV.”
On the opposite side of the exhibit is “Tainted,” the work of senior Studio Art and Physics major Catho Fan. The work connects to Fan’s experiences of being harassed at locations in Rochester and is meant to capture the anxiety of returning to those places.
They used black and white photos to symbolize memories, placing red and white thread atop the photos. Fan said these features “are supposed to be reflective of my internal, like thought processes while I’m going through these locations.”
Fan plays with space very deliberately in “Tainted.” Downcast lighting emphasizes the otherwise difficult-to-see white thread, Fan explained, and draws out the shadows from the piece. Eyes of thread were created with push pins pressed into the wall. A six-foot tall cardboard cut-out is placed away from the photos at a distance which Fan called “uncomfortable” to give the impression of the figure “kind of creeping up.”
The fourth artist, senior Studio Art and Brain and Cognitive Sciences major Alicia Lawson has her piece called “Diary of a Naturalist” on a pedestal for visitors to flip through. It’s a book handbound by Lawson, containing drawings and watercolors of natural subjects like squirrels or birds. Also in the book are quotes selected by Lawson from songs, poems, and more.
Through this work, Lawson combines her scientific background with art and writing. This comes through in her use of scientific references in her work — which came from a combination of specimens from the Ward Collection, reference images, and subjects in her own life.
Lawson explained, “I wanted to make a hybrid of a naturalist’s notebook and a diary because I like the concept of combining two passions of mine, science and art, and just showing the way that like the more objective presentation of like a scientistic naturalist’s notebook plays into the more subjective experiences of like poetry and song lyrics and the other writings I included.”
There will be a reception for “Lines of Inquiry” Feb. 13 from 4 to 6 p.m.
