{"id":58323,"date":"2017-12-08T11:55:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-08T16:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=58323"},"modified":"2022-11-07T14:47:30","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T19:47:30","slug":"alive-kicking","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2017\/alive-kicking\/","title":{"rendered":"Alive & Kicking"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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December 8, 2017<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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Sculpture and Movement students inhabit artwork like never before in 808 exhibition<\/em><\/p>\n

Spark Volume 3, Issue 2<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>| by Daniella Weiss (COM\u201919)<\/em><\/p>\n

\"ClaireAshley_0346\"<\/a>
The opening of Claire Ashley’s exhibition of monstrous and whimsical forms at 808 Gallery incorporated interactive and performative elements with Theatre and Sculpture students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Illuminating the 808 Gallery<\/a> since the start of this fall semester is a captivating exhibit created by one dynamic artist\u2014 Claire Ashley<\/b>. While the exhibit, titled (((CRZ.F.F4NRS.AAK)))<\/a>, has been standing strong since early September, the gallery\u2019s opening ceremony and reception were held on October 14. The opening consisted of a group of CFA students interacting with and performing inside Ashley\u2019s work while spectators of the gallery wandered the room in wonderment at the massive sculptures. A few theatre students and one graduate sculpture student were invited by the artist herself to step inside these structures and bring the pieces to life.<\/p>\n

When walking along Commonwealth Avenue, one\u2019s eye can\u2019t help but be caught by these giant inflatable structures splattered with neon colors and forming various shapes. Mallika Chandaria <\/b>(CFA\u201920), a sophomore undergraduate student in the School of Theatre, was part of the group asked to perform. She attributes her knowledge of movement, which she took into this performance, to her past lessons from\u00a0Yo-EL Cassell<\/b>, Assistant Director of Movement at CFA. \u201cThe way that we are interacting with the pieces in this gallery is totally shaped by everything we learned from Yo-EL, and that we continue to learn with his guidance,\u201d said Chandaria (CFA\u201920). \u201cThe biggest thing I learned from him is that in movement it\u2019s about responding to what the space is giving you or what other people are giving you in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Won Ju Lim<\/strong>, who leads a New Genres class, had previously discussed and hoped to collaborate with Yo-EL to have their students interact in a performance together. \u201cWe did not know about Claire\u2019s exhibition, and we were so pleasantly surprised that her work is perfect for a collaboration between a performance and a sculpture class,\u201d said Lim. In the skilled professor\u2019s words, her New Genres class highlights a \u201cnon-traditional approach to art.\u201d Lim aims to convey a focus on \u201cthe spatial-temporal and subject-object relationships\u201d within new genres of art. In this perspective, Ashley\u2019s exhibit served as a vehicle to reinforce these lessons within students.<\/p>\n

Chandaria and two fellow School of Theatre students were invited to participate in the exhibition performance, along with MFA Sculpture student Kayla Arias <\/b>(CFA\u201919). She took on the role of one of the structures as well\u2014hers an inflatable duck. \u201cI am essentially inserting myself and my movement to take over the alien bodies that are these sculptures. I\u2019m giving them life, I\u2019m giving them movement, maybe sound, and intentions\u2014like making movements to mimic certain motions,\u201d said Arias. In further detailing the experience, Arias described it as \u201ceasy to embody [the sculpture]\u2014once you\u2019re inside, it\u2019s almost like you\u2019re in the womb and then you\u2019re free to move and act and express as you want. That\u2019s the fun part.\u201d The other students were also excited to take on these sculptures with their own interpretations of how each one would move if animated.<\/p>\n

\"Kayla<\/a>
Kayla Arias prepares to inhabit one of Ashley’s sculptures as part of the improvised exhibit performance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In preparation for the official opening, these CFA students engaged in a Skype conversation with Ashley earlier in the week. The Chicago-based Scottish artist\u2019s wishes for the students\u2019 participation allowed for a lot of creative freedom. School of Theatre undergraduate sophomore Ellie Ricker <\/b>(CFA\u201920) explained how Claire was interested in having a ballet dancer perform to see how their interactions differed. \u201cI am a ballet dancer, so I get to take both sides, from Yo-EL\u2019s and my own background in dance, and see how those mix and what I can do with each one within the shape and exploring the space,\u201d said Ricker.<\/p>\n

During Claire\u2019s conversation with the students, she aimed to convey the meaning behind the meticulously crafted title, (((CRZ.F.F4NRS.AAK))). The title was crafted as an homage to text language\u2014translating to \u2018Crazy Female Foreigners, Alive and Kicking,\u2019\u2014in today\u2019s climate a poignant and subversive message of bold, autonomous control of the female body and voice. Arias shared that Claire challenged the group \u201cto think about coming up with a coded language so that you can communicate inside the sculpture with the people outside of it.\u201d The idea of vague, but individualized communication was important to the artist. \u201cI was interested in having a conversation across different generations. A particular generation is going to be able to interpret that title, whereas my generation and older could not probably,\u201d said Ashley.<\/p>\n

A major component in bringing the exhibit\u2019s opening and performance together was CFA uniting different schools to bring their own artistic approach to the project. The School of Theatre student performers and artists were thrilled by the idea of intertwining their individual knowledge to bring Claire Ashley\u2019s work to life. \u201cI like that the idea of movement or language can be translated from visual arts to theatre to music. That is a concept that is universal in the arts,\u201d said Chandaria.<\/p>\n

Derek Martinez <\/b>(CFA\u201920), an undergraduate sophomore in the School of Theatre, discussed the unique spaces of overlap in the schools of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Music. \u201cFrom a standpoint of learning about the mindsets of the communities that exist in SVA, SOT, and SOM, the fact is\u2014 there are different ways of approaching your art.\u201d The factor of having student performers from different areas of study with CFA was crucial in Ashley\u2019s perspective as well, to get a range of interpretations towards the artwork. \u201cI\u2019ve really loved working with these guys because they\u2019ve had so many great suggestions in terms of how to activate and interact with these forms,\u201d shared Ashley. \u201cI\u2019m constantly learning from both how the forms operate in the world and how people use and respond to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ClaireAshley_0309\"<\/a>
Visitors admire the process as student artists step inside Claire Ashley’s sculptures.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before spectators arrived and the students\u2019 performance began, Claire advised the group to \u201cvocalize in order to find one another in the space.\u201d This talented group of CFA students was able to exercise their individual approaches to the art and move freely about the gallery space in each sculpture. Claire Ashley was, in all, extremely pleased with the contributions of these CFA students and the way the gallery performance came together. \u201cThis type of space is really great for that, and this type of university is great because it\u2019s a much larger environment and a much wider group of people that get access to this,\u201d said the artist. \u201cAnd that makes me super happy.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sculpture and Movement students inhabit artwork like never before in 808 exhibition Spark Volume 3, Issue 2\u00a0| by Daniella Weiss (COM\u201919) Illuminating the 808 Gallery since the start of this fall semester is a captivating exhibit created by one dynamic artist\u2014 Claire Ashley. While the exhibit, titled (((CRZ.F.F4NRS.AAK))), has been standing strong since early September, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6310,"featured_media":87564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"tags":[],"bu-publication":[192],"magazine-article-category":[],"magazine-topic":[],"news-article-category":[312],"news-topic":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/58323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6310"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58323"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/58323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95482,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/58323\/revisions\/95482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58323"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=58323"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-article-category?post=58323"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/magazine-topic?post=58323"},{"taxonomy":"news-article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-article-category?post=58323"},{"taxonomy":"news-topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-topic?post=58323"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=58323"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=58323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}