C/O @McMasterSumma2022
In their graduating exhibition, the BFA class of 2022 highlights the importance of art and being seen
By: Joleen Awad, contributor
From March 31, 2022 to April 29, 2022, McMaster University students will have the opportunity to visit the 2022 Bachelor of Fine Arts graduating class’ art exhibition, located at the McMaster Museum of Art.
Every year, the graduating Studio Art class puts on an exhibition to demonstrate the accumulated skills and knowledge that they’ve gained about art during their undergraduate years. SUMMA means to summarize, which is exactly what this show will do for the students’ education and what they’ve learned.
Sahra Soudi, an artist and community organizer herself, is the curator of this year’s exhibition. Her job is to develop and layout the show so all the artwork fits together cohesively in a way that represents the theme and the museum, giving her an up-close and personal experience with the pieces.
As an introduction to the exhibition, Soudi shared with the Silhouette her curatorial statement for the show.
“Taking space means daring to be bold, seen and heard. The 2022 SUMMA exhibition Taking Space does exactly that,” said Soudi.
Soudi revealed this show will be the first time that many of BFA students have actually been able to visit the museum and art gallery since the beginning of the pandemic, explaining in this way they are physically taking up space there.
“I think that figuratively too, what that means is that it is kind of just being unafraid to be vulnerable and unafraid to show the work that they’ve been pouring a lot of energy and time into,” explained Soudi.
The McMaster SUMMA 2022 account on Instagram began posting photos of the artists’ works back in November 2021, providing a sneak peek into what the exhibition will look like.
The exhibition showcases a variety of art mediums, including abstract pieces, paintings, mixed media, installation pieces and video animation, ensuring there is something for everyone.
The show serves as a way for the students to express themselves as artists, showing the McMaster community what it means to take up space in their own way.
“Something that I really do enjoy about the show is that there is a variety with the mediums that the students chose to use and some of them do relate to each other,” said Soudi.
Soudi believes fellow students should visit their peers’ exhibition as a way to participate and be a part of the artworks’ journey and creation.
“The last two years have been really hard for artists, especially with the students, and not being able to get [any] encouragement or space to be seen,” she explained.
For the Studio Art class of 2022, this exhibition will be their final opportunity to share their voice with others before stepping into the artistic scene outside of McMaster.
Third and fourth-year students from McMaster’s School of the Arts program have spent months putting together every detail of the Coalesce Art Exhibition.
From selecting pieces and designing promotional materials to envisioning the installation of the entire exhibit, students in the Community Exhibition course, under the guidance of professor Sally McKay, have been learning to put together an exhibit from start to finish.
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Students are not only involved in every aspect of the curation of Coalesce, but the exhibit also serves as an opportunity to showcase their own artwork and share their personal interests and areas of research with the community. For many students, Coalesce will be a chance to make a presence outside of campus.
The opening reception will take place March 23 at the Spice Factory and will feature live entertainment by Math Club, the Bandicoots and Jennifer Budd and the diverse work of 29 art students from the Studio Art and Art History programs.
Nicholson will be graduating this year from the Studio Art program with a minor in Art History. Her work focuses on architecture, which she hopes to pursue after graduation. She grew up with a curiosity for the stories hidden in aging buildings and an appreciation for the historical value that can be found in Hamilton’s architecture.
Nicholson obscures her photographs by removing details and extracting more ornamentation in the architecture, sometimes even painting on top of prints, to create a more ominous atmosphere that is characteristic of historical photographs.
“I really like exaggerating the tonal values between black and white to contrast each other and just make it quite ominous. It’s a different perspective of the architecture that I see personally…. It’s finding beauty in the dark,” explained Nicholson.
Nicholson has created a diptych of the Spice Factory that will be displayed at Coalesce, the piece is an ode to the hosting venue, which has over a century’s worth of stories and artifacts. Before entering the Spice Factory, make sure to take in all the details, as Nicholson will have a unique perspective to show you.
While only in her third-year of studio art, Fernando already has her artistic vision defined. She creates landscape drawings inspired by her memories and experiences, while incorporating the vivid colours and motifs of her Sri Lankan culture.
Fernando creates organic ceramic sculptures that are used as a surface for her drawings, which are done in ink and acrylic paint. Recently, Canadian terrain and landscapes have etched their way through Fernando’s mark making in her drawings.
Hamilton’s eminent waterfalls and Fernando’s cultural background have inspired her artwork for Coalesce. The piece imagines a new landscape that merges and celebrates the beauty of two distant lands.
Fernando has built three plinths with carvings that mimic the flow of water. Each plinth will hold organic clay sculptures, which were fired in a kiln to create different surfaces and textures that inspired the overlaying drawings.
Pearson is a third-year studio art student who continuously pushes herself to explore new techniques, themes and research interests through art. Her recent work utilizes textiles and collage mediums as well as etching techniques to create dialogue around objects interrupting a space or landscape.
Pearson will be exhibiting UDWR, a soft sculpture installation of fabric goats hanging from the ceiling over a Utah landscape. The series was inspired by Pearson’s research into how the mountain goat population is maintained in Utah.
In order to control the population of goats, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources would bundle the goats in bags, tether them to a helicopter and fly them to sparsely populated ranges.
“Everything about this is fascinating to me, the way that they have to blindfold the goats to keep them calm, the way that this endeavour becomes a moment of transition from a familiar space to somewhere uncertain, and the way that humans create environmental problems that they must then intervene to solve,” explained Pearson.
Pearson’s artwork stirs a varied range of emotions. Some viewers will appreciate the piece at its surface value, acknowledging the skill of creating three-dimensional form from fabrics, and others will take a deeper look and resonate with the issues and concepts that the art conveys.
Hamel is a fourth-year student in the studio art program. Their practice centers around video art and they utilize techniques such as datamoshing, which is the manipulation of media files’ codes to create mesmerizing audio and visual effects.
Hamel has been exploring queer identity through video art and they’ve used their work as an attempt to show one’s multifaceted identity and breakdown the pressure imposed on genderqueer persons to perform gender in a certain way.
Freedom of self-expression is also a consistent theme throughout Hamel’s work and they’ve taken up an interest in ignorant style tattooing. They hope to take a stab at being a tattoo artist after graduation.
At Coalesce, Hamel will showcase their tattoo illustrations. One flat sheet is filled with illustrations of dogs, some panting, others wearing sunglasses, baseball caps and party hats. Another sheet is filled with illustrations of a baby cradling a strawberry, a kit-cat clock and a retro chatter phone.
Prasad is a multidisciplinary artist in her fourth year. Her practice explores cultural and religious identity while utilizing various mediums, such as paintings and book binding, depending on the direction her research takes her.
Since first year, Prasad’s artwork has been largely influenced by her Indo Fijian culture and the artwork she will be exhibiting at Coalesce is an exemplification of that. Her work focuses on celebrating customs and traditions through humorous anecdotes, while also taking a more historical approach towards shedding light on minority history and racism.
Prasad created a bronze installation titled Komagata Maru that symbolizes the often forgotten Komagata Maru incident. In 1914, due to anti-immigration sentiment and racism, hundreds of Indians onboard the SS Komagata Maru were denied entry into Canada.
In another series, Prasad uses humour to make learning about different cultural practices and memes more accessible and negate the fear of being offensive. Mission: Joota Chupai is one of three digital prints that shares a traditional Indian wedding custom where the sisters or female cousins of the groom steal the groom’s embroidered shoes and he must pay money to get them back.
Prasad hopes to continue exploring the history of minorities in Canada through her art practice after graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts this year.
Coalesce is a free admission exhibition that will open from 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. on March 23 and from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 24 at the Spice Factory located at 121 Hughson Street North.
Students in the Studio Art program are getting attention on campus with a live t-shirt printing session, using their original designs. The "ImPRESS Yourself" event is happening outside Togo Salmon Hall all day today.
There is a suggested donation of $10 per design for those who bring their own t-shirts. Extra shirts will be offered on a first-come, first-serve basis for $20, including the design.
The session was inspired by the program's visiting artist, Ryan O'Malley, professor of printmaking at Texas A&M.
"This is an example of 600 year-old technology in the twenty-first century," said O'Malley. "When people can see how an image is made, they feel more connected to it."
John Ford, professor in the program, said the project provides students an entrepreneurial opportunity to apply what they've learned in class. Students are printing fine art images and generating populist, wearable art, he said.
"The first response from students is, 'I'm afraid,' and they have to learn quickly that there's a sense of immediacy," said O'Malley. "They have to get out there and make art, not worrying about their marks."
"A lot of students at McMaster don't know there's a studio art program here," said Keisha Neoma-Quinn, a third-year studio art student. "We've never done a live printing session, and I think it's important for us to get our art out on campus."
"One guy had his rep suit printed, and another person brought their jean jacket. It's pretty cool to see what people are bringing," said Neoma-Quinn.
T-shirts can be bought in TSH-114, which is also home to the university's fine arts studio. Proceeds from the event will go toward other student initiatives in the Studio Art program such as visiting artists and educational programming.