Lauren RabainoNew York-based installation artist Amanda Browder is the newest featured artist in the University Art Gallery. Her new site-specific exhibit has been on display since Nov. 7.
Browder, who currently resides in Brooklyn, New York and has taught at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, met Cal Poly art gallery coordinator Jeff Van Kleek, while a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
“We were looking for a sculptor that challenged ideas of how sculpture should look,” Van Kleek said of the decision to display Browder’s art at the gallery. “I always thought her work was fun and clever, two things I think are hard to do.”
On display since Nov. 7, “The Edenic Fault” is a site-specific exhibit. Browder researched the gallery space her art would be displayed in and then decided what art would fit best. Much of her art is constructed this way, making for down-to-the-wire finishes. The final construction of the art is routinely completed during the week prior to the show’s opening.
As an installation artist, Browder’s ultimate goal is to ensure that audience members are able to interact with her work beyond merely looking at it. In order to include more senses in the experience, installation art transcends traditional two-dimensional paintings to include the sculptural aspects of three-dimensional works. The physical space between the pieces is also utilized in order to add to the effect.
“When you walk into the space and you are incorporated into the space as part of the piece, that is what I was trying to achieve,” Browder said.
“(Installation art) needs to be collective to give that full perspective. Maybe in the future I’ll show one of these objects singularly, but the full meaning of that specific space are those pieces (shown) as one big piece.”
“The Edenic Fault” connects several seemingly disparate objects, including a self-portrait of the artist in a mustache, boulders, a rainbow with arrows in it, an axe connected to a link chain and a crack running up a wall into a larger, collective experience.
Student volunteers helped Browder put together the exhibit and she enjoyed the opportunity to connect with the volunteers on a personal level. With their help, Browder constructed the exhibit in only one week.
Since the exhibit opened, many students, artists and non-artists alike, have visited the exhibit to view Browder’s work, something Van Kleek is happy about.
“Students are the change agents for the future,” Van Kleek said. “They need to look at things with new eyes, contemplate things from fresh perspectives and challenge themselves to understand the complex world we live in.”
“The Edenic Fault” will run in the art gallery located inside the Dexter building through Dec. 5. Art gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.