Show features student work
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:19 p.m., April 18, 2008
Updated 02:19 p.m., April 18, 2008
Jordan Haiduk
Stephanie Clark exhibits her work during the ESU Student Art Show.
For Megan Stelljes, being part of Emporia State University’s annual Juried Student Art exhibition means being part of a provocative — even at times, in her words, racy — exhibit.
Stelljes, a junior from Salina who’s studying with an emphasis in glass art, has had work displayed in the juried exhibit all three of her years at ESU. This year’s show carries a number of pieces, including Stelljes’ work, that might offend the offendable.
“I was really excited that it seems like a very liberal exhibit, which I think is really important, especially in an academic environment, that we do allow people to kind of push the limits and allow for new ideas and new thinking,” she said.
The Juried Student Art exhibition began with an opening reception on April 7. Works in the show are being displayed in the Eppink and Gilson Memorial galleries in King Hall through May 2.
Roberta Eichenberg, assistant art professor at ESU and the gallery director at the Eppink, said the eye-opening content of the show is a function of both the students’ artistic leanings and those of the show’s juror. This year’s juror was Anne Pearce, visiting professor of art and the director of the Greenlease Gallery at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Mo.
“If you look at her work,” Eichenberg said, “you can kind of see a connection to the body, a lot of figurative stuff, and maybe some things that are altering the body, possibly.”
Stelljes’ entries in the show fit into that category. She describes one of her two glass works, The Sugar Daddy, as a “very phallic” piece.
Jordan Haiduk
Sarah Sparks exhibits her art at the ESU Student Art Show.
“The other one,” Stelljes said, referring to a mixed-media piece, “it’s a pig head on a cowboy’s body wearing chaps, and so his genitalia is exposed, and he’s in a bell jar that’s shaped like a condom. There’s a pair of breasts in front of him. So, definitely dealing with the sexual content.”
She said she was “definitely” trying to push the envelope with those two works.
“Especially, I think, in school, when you’re working with your peers, it’s kind of intimidating sometimes to really do something that’s a little wild,” Stelljes said. “But I think it’s a good exercise, if only to see how the public does respond to work that is a little different.”
This year, for the first time, students whose work wasn’t accepted for the student art show could choose to have their work displayed in the Salon de Refuses exhibition at the Emporia Arts Center, which also runs through May 2.
The Eppink and Gilson galleries are open from Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Arts Center is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday.
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Posted by cloud (anonymous) on April 18, 2008 at 11:51 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Is it possible to push the edges of art without being pornographic in nature. Hmmmm... no that would require thought and oh yeah, creativity.
Posted by emporian (anonymous) on April 19, 2008 at 12:02 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It amazes me what passes as art these days. Some girl from Yale was in the news because she was artificially insemenating herself then taking abortion drugs so she could could videotape her miscarriages. She even saved blood from it. It was all for her senior art project.
Posted by wanderer (anonymous) on April 19, 2008 at 1:18 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Before passing judgment on her work, why not go out and take a look at it? Deciding the value of an art work from a newspaper description is a little like reading a book about England and deciding that you've seen Buckingham Palace.
If you see it and still don't like it, fine. That's your right. But at least give her the courtesy of a viewing.
Posted by emporialifer (anonymous) on April 20, 2008 at 11:44 a.m. (Suggest removal)
emporian - I had not heard about that story, but that makes me absolutely sick! She should have failed. Although she'll be getting hers in the end I'm sure, but how sad.
Posted by lildarling (anonymous) on April 20, 2008 at 10:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)
http://www.yaledailynews.com/storymin.ht...
Okay, so I like to think that I'm open-minded. Beauty is in the mind of the beholder, etc. I think that people should have the right to express themselves freely, and do as they wish to their own body.
My problem is if someone ran across this art piece unsuspectingly. I hope there is a disclaimer outside of the display so people know exactly what they are in for. Seeing video of a woman miscarrying is not something I would want to see and I certainly wouldn't want to stumble upon it while trying to see some charcoal fruit basket drawings.
Something tells me in twenty years when the artsiness of the undergraduate art program at Yale wears off, she's going to have a difficult time dealing with herself.
Posted by Absolute (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 12:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
The Yale lady thing has been proven to not be accurate. It is being called "preformance art". She did not actually induce abortions.
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