By Ryan Rousseau
Correspondent
Senior arts and communication studies majors were featured in the “Movement in Paraphrase” exhibition held in the Arts and Interactive Multimedia building on Sept. 29. All artists incorporated the event’s theme into their work by producing works that capture the essence of social change through various mediums.
Featured artists of the evening included senior fine arts majors April Moorhouse, Ariel Capellupo, Andrew Serge, Megan Baier and Teri McCans, fine arts and digital arts major Dan Ditzel and digital arts and interactive multimedia major Chelsea Siciliano.
Capellupo embodied the theme of the exhibit in her three pieces addressing sexuality and gender. Her pieces incorporated both typical and unconventional mediums, such as acrylic paints and cigarette packs. “Homosexuals are possessed by the devil,” “5 Cunts” and “Holy smokes Batman that’s a lot of fags!” were ironically titled and portrayed deep repulsion at the prejudice aimed at women and homosexuals in today’s society.
Both “Homosexuals are possessed by the devil” and “5 Cunts” were set in a hell-ish backdrop of fire and brimstone, smothered by flames of the deepest red and orange.
In “Homosexuals are possessed by the devil,” two demonic women embrace with tongues touching. “5 Cunts” had the slur plastered on the canvas five times, growing from smallest to largest. Capellupo used daring and artistic genius to portray her stance on issues by attracting onlookers to her provocative pieces.
In Capellupo’s third piece “Holy smokes Batman, that’s a lot of fags!” a multitude of old cigarette packs were used. The word play of this piece (the British slang for cigarette is ‘fag’) just makes it all the more ironic.
Another artist of the evening was Teri McCans, who focused more on a political message through her pieces, “Afghanistan” and “Transparency in War,” which were painted with ink and watercolor. “Afghanistan” features a ragged woman’s torso, spilling blood onto an otherwise white canvas, her hair falling over her pale face. The counterpart to that last piece, “Transparency in War,” depicts a decaying corpse in the fetal position colored in blue, black and red.
The exhibit featured various mediums from photography such as Siciliano’s “Par la Prima Volta,” which featured photography of various modes of transportation, to architecture as in Serge’s “Replacement.”
Perhaps one of the more unusual pieces was crafted by Dan Ditzel. This piece, titled “Untitled Series” was composed of many individually framed designs arranged across an entire wall, each with its own distinct shape and color.
The night was full of satire, including a hilarious take on fashion magazine covers like “Cosmopolitan” and “Tiger Beat” by Baier. With captions reading “Weird Reason You’re so Tired,” it takes aim at the harmful effect the media can have on self-esteem. The models on the cover were painted with a sickly green tint to their bodies, this coupled with their death like faces and skinny frames made them look more like zombies than people.
