Public art pieces promote campus interactivity
The arrival of furniture merged with trees by Sarah Bierman '14 on campus is a welcome addition to a lineage of public art by students that has been displayed over the past couple of years.
The most prominent examples of student artwork featured on campus are the interactive works of Maayan Bar-Yam '12 and Sarah Bierman '14, who have both contributed to the campus aesthetic.
In early 2012, Bar-Yam installed swings on tree branches around campus for people to enjoy at their leisure, according to a BrandeisNOW article from February 2012. Bierman set up carved wooden bunny sculptures on the hill next to Goldfarb Library last year with the hope that students would take them home.
This year, she has installed chairs and sofas integrated into trees at different sites around the campus.
Both Bar-Yam's swings and Bierman's chairs are part of thesis projects in the Studio Art program. Prof. Tory Fair (FA), the director of the Studio Art program, discussed student work in an interview with the Justice. "They participate in an intense year of senior studio where they're developing a body of work that they basically both work with a professor and also a lot independently, and so the year is focused on really trying to bring out artistic growth ... in a body of work," she explained.
"We'll give critique in the beginning of January," she added. Bierman commented on this process, saying that "when I'll make something in the studio that has no intended place after the critique, it collects dust, and I don't like that feeling. ... I want it to have a life after the critique, so when it's out in nature and it's not my responsibility anymore after I've documented it-I don't know-I like that feeling a lot better."
Explaining her philosophy regarding interactivity in her own artwork, Bierman said, "You should be able to touch it, you should be able to take pictures with it, and I really like that freedom given to art."
The chairs that she installed, she said, are actually intended for people to sit on. Bar-Yam similarly encouraged interaction with his swings according to the BrandeisNOW article, and observed people frequently riding on the swings.
Fair also explained that many painting students display their work around campus. "We have, over the years, put student work all over campus.
"One year, I remember, we went into the Castle and we built walls and we had a little show of student work in the Castle. We've had shows in the [Shapiro Campus] Center. We're always trying to bring the work out into the world," said Fair.
On the whole, however, Fair expressed concern that the gallery space for the Studio Art program has been inadequate. "I think that if our gallery was more visible, it would mean a lot to the students because people would wander through and there could be a lot more traffic and their artwork and the work in the studios would be a lot more visible," she said.
To display sculptures outdoors, a student must work with "materials that can handle the weather," explained Fair. One of the issues with displaying student work indoors is the lack of appropriate space.
"Unfortunately, our gallery is somewhat hidden, so there are a lot of other students doing great work that is less visible because it just gets displayed in the gallery where there's much less traffic," said Fair.
"We've also often overtaken the [Shapiro Campus] Center and had different installations of sculptures [there], but it's such a highly competitive space. It's difficult because we can put a sculpture [in] but then we have to take it out very quickly."
Fair emphasized the support of the Brandeis community when it comes to putting the artwork on display: "It's still a very good experience for the students to get the work out of the studio and into a public realm, whether it's inside or outside," she said.
Bierman already has future plans for her sculpture work on-campus. "Now I think I want to do some more of the building myself, building things from scratch, either using raw materials or repurposed materials to kind of have that same effect, but be a little more creatively satisfying," she said.
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