‘Interactions’
By Scott Rochat
Originally published 02:36 p.m., September 18, 2007
Updated 02:36 p.m., September 18, 2007
Photo by Katie Freeman
A fountain in the exhibit decorated with many objects.
Patrick Rush and Melissa Wichmann have created a whole new world at the Emporia Arts Council. Two worlds, as a matter of fact.
One is dominated by the natural world — a tree by a pool, birds overhead and leaves underfoot, images suggesting flowers, waters and even Eve herself. Another is filled with the man-made — a fountain looking like a combination of kitchen sink and garbage can, trees made from bottles and decorations made from soda cartons, planes filling the sky and cardboard tubes on the ground.
Between the two worlds runs a crack. And that, Rush and Wichmann say, is where the viewer comes in.
Photo by Katie Freeman
Interactions, a collaborative installation by Patrick Rush and Melissa Wichmann, is an exhibit mostly contructed out of trash and recyclable materials.
“We realize industrial society and the natural world are drawing further and further apart,” Rush said. “But people are creatures of both — they’re the bridge. That’s why there’s the chasm ... we can make it still wider or we can become a bridge.”
It’s a visual lesson that will stand for a few more days. The exhibit, “Interactions,” will complete its three-week run Saturday at the arts council, 618 Mechanic St. Its roots go back about a year, although the biggest inspiration may have come last March with Emporia State University’s otherworldly “Big Bang” exhibit.
Both “Big Bang” and “Interactions” are installations, exhibits that transform a gallery into a gigantic art work. It’s not an easy method — even with the help of friends and a lot of preparation, it took Rush and Wichmann 11 days to put up “Interactions.” But for the two ESU art students, it’s worth it.
Photo by Katie Freeman
A paper bird hanging from the ceiling of the Interactions exhibit at the Emporia Arts Council.
“We’ve been told as students ‘We are concerned not only with the piece itself, but the environment it sits in,’” Rush said. “So we completely took the environment and changed it as we saw fit.”
It’s been an illuminating exercise, and not just for the visitors. Much of the refuse seen in the exhibit came from the two students’ households over a period of four to five months, including junk mail and Pop Tarts cartons. One minor side effect was that both artists had very light trash loads on pickup day for a while.
As it happened, the junk filled the gallery pretty quickly
“It’s not that big of a place,” said Wichmann (pronounced “Wishman”). “But when you think of that on an individual level and multiply it even by 100, you start to see the whole picture.”
Even so, neither Wichmann nor Rush wants to preach. Their aim is simply to make the cycle they see visible: how humans depend on nature and industry depends on humans, while all three depend on the choices that are made.
“It makes you feel you can do anything,” Wichmann said.
Photo by Katie Freeman
Melissa Wichmann and Patrick Rush are the artists who created Interactions.
Some of that action can be taken on a smaller scale. As part of the exhibit, the artists are accepting donations to help animals through the Buck Fund or children through the arts council’s youth program.
Both Wichmann and Rush teach at the arts council and encouraged their students to add to the exhibit. And in a way, it’s still not done — everyone who makes a donation at the exhibit can choose one more piece to add, changing the picture a little more.
After Saturday, it’ll be time to return anything borrowed, take down anything created and recycle what can be recycled. But until then, there’s still a lot to see, even in the debris that occupies the two halves of the gallery.
“One person told me ‘It looks like the litter of nature versus the litter of society,’” Rush said. “That was really interesting.”
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