Art exhibition aims for viewer’s eyes, ears and noses

Judy Samson
Sat, 05 Feb 2011 21:13:20 +0000
Fine Arts

The Ohio State Art Scholars themed its annual juried exhibition around the idea that pieces of art can stimulate emotions and senses besides sight.

“(The exhibition) is dealing with how we can take art and elicit an emotional or sense response from the audience,” said Tim Valentine, Art Scholars program manager.

Students mostly run the exhibit. A student committee, the Arts Leaders Council, is a part of the Art Scholars and is in its first year of running exhibitions.

“The Arts Leaders Council is a group of Arts Scholars whom I appointed as leaders within the program to help make decisions and lead events and programs,” Valentine said. “It’s a board of 10 students, first- through fourth-years who work with me to manage the Arts Scholars Program.”

The council came up with the theme of the exhibition in the fall, and then sent out a call for students to submit their suggestions and their proposals. The exhibition was open to non-art students as well as art students, and welcomed students of all years.

Eddie Sergi, a fourth-year in art and technology, has been with the scholars group since freshman year. Sergi contributed two pieces of art, one animation and a color photo. His photo project is titled “High Fructose.”

Sergi said “High Fructose” is not just supposed to affect the viewer’s eyesight, but it is supposed to affect the viewer’s sense of smell and touch.

“You can almost taste the picture,” Sergi said.

To take the photo, Sergi bought several pounds of Jolly Ranchers and put a lighter to every one in order to melt the bottom. Then he layered them like bricks and took a photo of it backlit.

The exhibition is relatively small, with about 15 pieces.

“It’s definitely a cool way for undergraduate students to get their art displayed that are a part of the program,” Valentine said.

This is the Art Scholar group’s fifth year with an exhibition, and its second year housing the exhibition at the OSU Urban Arts Space. Before then, the group showed its work in the Short North area at different coffee shops.

The show will be open from Feb. 5 to March 31 at the OSU Urban Arts Space, located at 50 W. Town St.

There will be a reception featuring the artists on March 3 from 6 to 8 p.m.