In this last few weeks of the semester at McDaniel, the Rice Gallery is yet again setting up, this time for the second leg of senior art exhibits. Slightly different than the first leg, the second leg, entitled “Affect + Effect: Art and Social Responsibility,” focuses mainly on identity. On April 27, five of the seniors in the Art Department presented their material to the community.
One student, Hannah Sommer, talked about clothing. She stated how much of America does not consider its value by posing the question of who makes our clothes. To demonstrate this, she had a mannequin wearing a T-shirt that was covered in clothing tags. Additionally, she found an old VCR and covered it in advertisements while playing a looping compilation of clothing commercials.
Continuing with the theme of identity, Rachel Sentz’s exhibit contained a number of different projects that focused on stories and the personality of objects. One of her pieces was a video of her writing down on a notecard what she thought notecards themselves were useful for. She urged the audience to consider that every object has its own story and identity.
Perhaps the most eye-catching exhibit was Hunter Metcaffe’s giant, multicolored bass fish made of cut pieces of a 4×4. He cut over 200 pieces and hand painted each one to create an extensive bass. In fact, all of Hunter’s pieces revolved around nature, and fish specifically. Having grown up in rural Pennsylvania, Hunter focused his theme on the identity of nature in his home territory. He discussed how people need to focus on taking care of nature in order to sustain the habitat so that future generations can continue to enjoy the beautiful world.
The graduating art students this year have certainly left behind a lot of thoughtful material for people to ponder upon. Identity is something that is core to humanity and perhaps even to other life and inanimate objects. The second senior art exhibit was an eye-catching and thought provoking thing to experience.
To read more about the first leg of senior art exhibits, follow the link here.
Good luck seniors!
