Object / Subject / Abject Exhibit
Nov. 17 – 21
Artist Lectures: Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2 p.m.
Artist Reception: Friday, Nov. 21, 6-8 p.m.
Lee Gallery, 1-101 Lee Hall
CLEMSON – The Center for Visual Arts – Lee Gallery at Clemson University opens its new exhibit “Object / Subject / Abject” Nov. 17 – Nov. 21. The exhibit showcases the work of three MFA thesis candidates from the Department of Art’s drawing, printmaking and sculpture programs. A Gallery Talk is scheduled to take place Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2 p.m. with the artists giving a five-minute creative research presentation on the development of their works. A reception for the artists will take place Friday, Nov. 21, 6 – 8 p.m.
Object / Subject / Abject is a mixed media exhibition examining social expectations, power constructs, and the arena in which the individual intersects with mass media and consumption. Artists included in the exhibition engage the viewer through a range of devices such as reflection, re-contextualization, poetry, irony, and humor.
Through the use of printmaking Laken Bridges explores labor, stigma and social class in prints and an art installation that encourages the viewer to consider socio-economic conditions that reframe negative associations linked to the working class. She writes, “My art is comfortably approachable on a the surface, the hand in drawing offering an aesthetic appeal while manipulated text, scale and substrates offer more subliminal cues that encourage a more thoughtful consideration of the world we live in and the socio-economic conditions that dictate experience.”
Through the use of drawing Joel Murray confronts ideas of imbalances in power and social reform, using humor to pull viewers closer to difficult subject matter. He states, “I combine and reinterpret recognizable media artifacts to comment on the context that makes up American culture.” His work is a cultural critique, pitting the ridiculous against crucial moments in time and seen through mass media.
Through materials such as hair, steel and video Tanna Burchinal’s work inserts the body into clinical spaces to foreground its duality. Burchinal utilizes scale and common objects such as music boxes and salt to engage the viewer in refection on the transitional nature of power structures. She writes, “The steady presence of subversion in my work is to undercut seemingly concrete structures of power that are exclusionary, and to signify the inevitability that they are subject to change.”
The Center for Visual Arts – Lee Gallery at Clemson University is open M – F, 9 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. and is located at 1-101 Lee Hall, 323 Fernow Street, Clemson, SC 29634. Gallery talks and reception are free and open to the public. For more information about the Lee Gallery, contact Denise Woodward-Detrich, Director at woodwaw@clemson.edu.