Several students placed different pieces and types of art around campus as part of a new art project. The art presents itself in new forms and requires some thought as well as creativity from the art students themselves.
Unlike other projects, the students were required to create a piece that would cause the audience member to not see it as art initially, but overtime understand its value and, therefore, its artwork. Part of the criteria was to place the artwork surreptitiously or overnight. The objective of this was to surprise students and workers with a piece of unknown art displayed in their everyday surroundings.
With different forms and presentations of art, the students have amplified this project by incorporating mixed media, paintings and other various pieces in specific parts of buildings.
Robert Green, professor of art and design, said this is his second attempt at this type of project. Green said he based the project on what other artists have done in the past and how their overnight art affected their audiences in ways words couldn’t.
“I’m kind of working on that model that you put something in a space and see what people do with that and how they react to that,” Green said.
Green said the art should encounter the space and interact with the space as a whole instead of simply hanging a painting on a random wall.
“The work should take into account the context of that space, maybe the shape of the space,” said Green. “What people do in there and think about how they would react to that [art] given that space and given that context.”
Students like Nicki DiCicco, sophomore painting major from Nashville, Tennessee, took several weeks to plan their group’s pieces both abstract and creatively for several weeks. DiCicco said she learned that the project is all based on what she wants others to see. DiCicco said the art placed in museums and displays can’t scream ‘I’m art’ yet, but through this project she was able to portray art in the most unlikely places.
“[Art] can be where someone least excepts it to be placed,” said DiCicco, “and something that’s the most impacting art of them all.”
The pieces of art are displayed throughout the campus. Keep your eyes open. You’ll never know if what you’re seeing is a work of art.
