Fingers stained with ink and rooms with the scent of freshly brushed paint adorned the UF campus Friday night. Art students scattered with their artwork throughout the Fine Arts complex to showcase their latest creations for UF’s School of Art and Art History’s annual Art Bash event.
“We encourage each area of the Fine Arts department to come together and present the strengths of their area,” said Wes Klein, the assistant professor of photography and Art Bash committee chair. Art Bash occurs about three quarters of the way through the semester so students could make progress with their artwork, Klein said.
Welcoming visitors with sounds of retro music, the Advanced Drawing studio presented an eccentric array of pieces clearly showing differences in the students’ artistic styles. In Christina Kwon’s section of the studio, knives on strings hung from the wall. While in the neighboring exhibit of Lisa Oppel, it was an actual ponytail of hair that was dangling on display.
While most exhibited studios showcased a variety of different students’ hard work, second year graduate student Leah Floyd’s pieces were presented in a featured studio of her individual pieces. Sketches of literalized interpretations of literature were her main area of artistic focus.
“In sketches I have displayed how women are portrayed in different forms of literature through literal interpretation. I am most interested in the exchange of tension between the author’s intention and the reader’s interpretation,” Floyd said.
The ideas behind Floyd’s pieces were easy to grasp for even those most unfamiliar with interpreting art. She cut out pages from books and underlined the phrase she literalized while displaying the corresponding sketch above the excerpt. A simpler example of one of her pieces was an interpretation from The Catcher in the Rye. The passage from the novel read, “She had very big knockers”. Floyd sketched a woman with two doorknockers in place of her breasts. Many of Floyd’s pieces were extremely logical, and some were quite witty.
Taking a similar approach but in a different artistic area, was second year sculpture student Josh Kubisz. Kubisz displayed many infomercial-like pieces. He created a “heimlich chair” and a “germicidal table.” The chair enables its user to actively perform the Heimlich if someone is choking and alone. The table acts to sterilize plates and silverware in efforts to create a germ-free eating environment. Though the sculptures were indeed fully functional, Kubisz’s sarcastic approach was undoubtedly appealing in its direct relation to every day life.
“I am interested in how the media profits in exploiting our panic. They create products to further our fears and phobias instead of offering a practical solution,” Kubisz said.
While typical art exhibitions stereotype themselves as a quiet event that you must refrain from touching anything, Art Bash was extremely relaxed and offered hands on activities. The UF Art Education club offered button making and the creation of art trading cards. The Graphic Design room even offered visitors to draw on the couch that they use to relax on in their studio. While Bash attendees were able to touch the ceramic pieces and artwork, some visitors were even allowed the chance to become the artwork themselves.
In the Fine Arts courtyard, UF Art Education Professor Craig Rolland allowed the public to partake in the fad of light painting. People drew pictures with glow sticks in the air in front of a camera as Rolland used a technique to capture the outline of the glow. This activity offered a fun way to pass time when walking between exhibits.
“This really was a pulling back on the veil on art-making,” Klein said.
