{"id":77384,"date":"2021-03-10T08:54:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T13:54:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/?p=77384"},"modified":"2022-10-28T08:56:51","modified_gmt":"2022-10-28T12:56:51","slug":"stone-gallery-hosts-mfa-sculpture-thesis-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu\/cfa\/news\/articles\/2021\/stone-gallery-hosts-mfa-sculpture-thesis-exhibition\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone Gallery Hosts MFA Sculpture Thesis Exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"David
Assistant Professor David Snyder discussing the 2021 Sculpture MFA Thesis Show in Stone Gallery. Photo by Cydney Scott.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This article was first published in BU Today on February 26, 2021. By Sam Drysdale (COM\u201921).<\/em><\/p>\n

EXCERPT<\/h5>\n

Entering the Faye G., Jo, and James Stone Gallery, you\u2019re greeted by a cacophony of sounds\u2014whirls, clicks, and rattles\u2014that echo off the walls and high ceilings of the College of Fine Arts gallery. It\u2019s all part of the multisensory experience of this year\u2019s <\/span>MFA Sculpture Thesis Exhibition<\/a>. The nine pieces on display by five talented artists pull viewers around the spacious room.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s exhibition, on view through Friday, March 12, is a little different from years past\u2014it features the work of both 2020 and 2021 MFA graduate students. Three of the featured artists weren\u2019t able to show their work last year because of the pandemic, and they have been included with current MFA candidates. The 2020 graduates created new work for the show, moved by the pandemic and other events of the intervening year.<\/p>\n

Chang Wu (CFA\u201920) says when he came to BU he was immersed in a culture different from what he knew. He became interested in the barriers between languages and how words can mean different things to different people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough the translation of languages, maybe there\u2019s a space to explore where they come together,\u201d he says. Reflecting on communication, Wu started playing with the idea of turning audio into movement in his art.<\/p>\n

Wu\u2019s piece <\/span>The Stuff\u2013As\u2013Dreams Are Made\u2013On<\/em> <\/span>uses found and constructed objects with electrical components to create an experience that challenges viewers to think about how those objects can be transformed. He recorded the sound of objects\u2014among them a Chipotle takeout container, a plastic straw, and a styrofoam box\u2014being moved. Videos of the objects making noise appear on a screen nearby.<\/p>\n

\"2021
An element of The Stuff\u2013As\u2013Dreams Are Made\u2013On, by Chang Wu (CFA\u201920), photo by Cydney Scott; Insurrection by Jennifer Kilburn (CFA\u201920), photo by David Snyder; Hannah Minifie (CFA\u201921) with part of her sculpture Three Doors. Photo by Cydney Scott.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Using engineering, Wu turned the found objects into audio exciters (technology that can turn an everyday object into a speaker by using electrical impulses). The recorded sounds are played back in the form of electricity that, through wires, makes the object move to re-create the original sound.<\/p>\n

The artist says he was interested in manipulating noise, turning a sound wave into an electrical impulse, then into movement, and finally, back into sound.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy work is not an answer,\u201d he says, \u201cit is a suggestion and question to think about what we can do with our objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walking through the gallery, the artists\u2019 influence on one another is apparent. Aris Hu (CFA\u201921) learned some of the technical skill needed to create her huge, constantly moving sculpture made of PVC pipe, wire, and construction objects through conversations with Wu, says <\/span>David Snyder<\/a>, a CFA assistant professor and chair of graduate studies in sculpture. He  describes Hu\u2019s piece as an \u201cunruly, miniature construction scenario\u201d whose constant motion makes it feel \u201clike improvisatory music.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says one of the pervading themes across all the work of the artists in this year\u2019s show is moving away from the computer screens that have held us all captive during the pandemic, and in those instances where the art appears on a screen, thinking about how that changes our perception of the work. \u201cAn important aspect of the show is that we live in a world where there is a reduction of information to a single plane,\u201d Snyder says. \u201cOne of the arguments all the artists are dealing with is scratching that surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Kilburn (CFA\u201920) is one of the artists scratching that surface. She shipped work for the show from Tampa, Fla., where she now lives, then arranged the piece for the exhibition.<\/p>\n

Kilburn received a BU <\/span>Graduate Arts Research Grant<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>in 2019 to travel to Ukraine and visit the Chernobyl area, site of the 1986 nuclear disaster, to create her 2020 thesis work centered on the apocalypse.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then the actual apocalypse happened,\u201d she says, referring to the events of January 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n

Her work quickly shifted to address the storming of the US Capitol. Her sculpture <\/span>Insurrection<\/em> <\/span>looks like an \u201980s arcade game. The vinyl sides depict caricatures of rioters in video game\u2013style art, and the sculpture plays a loop of whoops and dings as the word <\/span><\/strong>\u201cInsurrection\u201d flashes.<\/p>\n

Snyder says the piece is designed to highlight some of the \u201canachronistic cultural ideas\u201d that were behind the riots.<\/p>\n

Read the full article<\/a><\/p>\n

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