By Chiara Piacentini
Staff Writer
Walking into AIMM 119, a wall of leaves graces the left side of the room. Past that, you’ll find the story of Abigail Buckley, a senior fine arts major who spent four months creating an art exhibition called “The Journey of Life” as part of the Senior Solo Exhibitions.
“I actually came up with this series by accident, but it was a happy accident because it turned into something that I believe is beautiful,” Buckley wrote in an email.
This “happy accident” turns out to be a series of eight watercolor paintings that are an allegory of Buckley’s life dating back to this past February when she experienced sexual assault. She fell into a period of depression and “was abandoned by a close friend” during that time.
“Having all of this slowly bottling up inside of my head, I needed to find a healthy way to let it all out,” Buckley wrote. “That's where the art came in, and I started to form a story with my paintings.”
The story follows a girl who journeys into the forest, determined to reach the mountains behind it to find her life’s purpose. She befriends a wolf and a lion along the way.
One of the paintings, “Head Held High,” is meant to illustrate her sexual assault experience. It portrays the girl standing on a rock, face to face with a cheetah, who is meant to represent her assaulter, on a separate boulder. The lion stands behind the girl, ready to protect her.
“The lion…symbolizes a friend that I had at the time of the assault, who helped me to get through it,” Buckley wrote. “It was the friend that I was abandoned by later in the year, and I had painted this around the time that he went away.”
At the end of her journey, the girl realized that she was being too hard on herself and that it was okay to not know her purpose yet.
“I enjoyed being able to create a positive story from a very negative one,” Buckley wrote. “With the colors that I used, to the animals that I incorporated, I created a happier and safer reimagination of my story.”
Alongside Buckley’s exhibition is senior photography and video art major Joy Park’s artwork, “In Harmony.”
Joy Park’s “In Harmony” in AIMM 111 (Photo by Chiara Piacentini).
A photo collage of images ranging from interlocked hands to scenes of nature, trampoline springs and railroad tracks spans one wall.
A photo of a knotted rope in the middle of the collage with a physical rope connected to it ties the whole montage together.
Park’s imagery is inspired by the relationships she made from elementary school to college. She claims that people tend to forget about what helps them get through hard times, so she hopes this work can act as a “reminder that they always have somewhere or someone to rely on,” as her artist statement says.
AIMM 111 tells two other stories by senior visual arts, video and photography major Nate Johnson and senior fine arts major Sarah Romano.
Johnson’s darkened side of the room takes a digital approach to art with projections of a network apparatus vector overlaying his artwork titled “A View From the Floating Hourglass.” Through this design, he focuses on how the rise of the digital age presents a challenge to our society, drawing inspiration from his “attachment to the internet,” as his artist statement suggests.
Nate Johnson’s “A View From the Floating Hourglass” in AIMM 111 (Photo by Chiara Piacentini).
Two of Johnson’s creations pay homage to historical pieces of artwork. “Virtual Man” is a modern take on Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man,” and “The Creation of the Internet” is a spin-off of Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam.”
Another image displays Johnson’s face, which gradually takes on the face of a cyborg. A hand with the word “Misinformation” hovers above a line of Johnson clones.
Opposite this art piece, a computer screen plays a video of Johnson on a loop. In the video, he is sitting in his room with his laptop while someone in the background tries to coax him off his device.
“The internet is a great place; there is a vast amount of information readily available at your fingertips,” his artist statement read. “But, with all great things, there are many flaws; misinformation, a lack of identity, an addiction to the screen.”
Juxtaposing Johnson’s work, Romano presents a wide range of emotions that tell a story of how she navigated trauma from an abusive relationship through a series of eight acrylic paintings, titled “Navigating - Closure.”
Sarah Romano’s “Reverberations” painting as part of her “Navigating - Closure” exhibition (Photo by Chiara Piacentini).
“Through the use of acrylic paint, I seek to translate the often inexpressible feelings associated with trauma into tangible forms,” Romano’s artist statement read. “The work is rooted in vulnerability—inviting viewers to explore their own emotions evoked by experiences in their own lives.”
From right to left along two walls, Romano illustrates the stages of trauma with the first painting being a black canvas called “Navigating,” which represents when we first encounter trauma. What follows are paintings that portray the ensuing stages of trauma, including trying to let go, the pain of trauma, traumatic relapsing and the eureka effect.
In a full circle moment, the last canvas is painted black, but this time it’s called “Closure,” which brings both Romano’s and the viewer’s interpretation of trauma to an end.
The Senior Solo Exhibitions in AIMM rooms 111 and 119 opened to the public on Oct. 2 and will be available for viewing until Oct. 30.
