The Studio Arts class of 2020 presents their graduation arts show Unguarded
The graduating classes of the Studio Arts Program at McMaster University have traditionally showcased their works in the annual SUMMA exhibition in April at the McMaster Museum of Art. However in March when McMaster cancelled programming due to COVID-19, the show had to be relocated to a virtual platform. Titled Unguarded, the exhibition went live on Sept. 10 and will remain permanently online on the McMaster Museum of Art website.
The virtual exhibition and associated print catalogue feature images and videos of the 16 graduates’ pieces. Plans to organize a virtual gallery came together a few months after the April exhibition was put on pause due to COVID-19. At the beginning of the summer, the studio arts graduates and Curator Stylo Starr connected online to discuss building a virtual gallery.
With a background in graphic design, Starr is a multimedia artist from Hamilton who predominantly makes collage art. Starr summarized Unguarded in five simple words: “being your true authentic creator.”
Starr’s focus on not only gallery shows, but on community-based work made her interested in curating the virtual exhibition. For Starr, Unguarded means freedom of expression and the lack of censorship, barriers or restraints. This was reflected in her approach as a curator and visiting artist.
“It was really important to not censor anyone, . . . to allow space [and] give space and agency to each artist equally to express what’s on their heart, what’s on their mind, what’s on their psyche and what’s being lived out [through] their experience. I think too often, especially in an academic environment, it almost comes second nature to guard things on either side of the spectrum whether it be censoring someone’s expression or . . . being a gatekeeper to whatever subject matter or topic,” said Starr.
“It was really important to not censor anyone, . . . to allow space [and] give space and agency to each artist equally to express what’s on their heart, what’s on their mind, what’s on their psyche and what’s being lived out [through] their experience. I think too often, especially in an academic environment, it almost comes second nature to guard things on either side of the spectrum whether it be censoring someone’s expression or . . . being a gatekeeper to whatever subject matter or topic,” said Starr.
Starr placed great emphasis on providing space for the artists to express freely. She was eager to listen to the artists’ goals and incorporate their input.
“It’s really exciting to finally see their work be shown, not necessarily in the way it was intended, but I’m really proud of how resilient all the artists were and [how they] have been able to roll with the obstacles that were clearly set,” said Starr.
Despite unforeseen circumstances, the studio arts class of 2020 has come together one last time to deliver the final products of their growth, character and experiences over the past four years. Starr hopes viewers will come away from the exhibit with an understanding of the power of art as a form of a language and an appreciation for the students’ fluency in the language of art. The Silhouette sat down with a few of the participating artists to discuss their time at McMaster and to gain insight into their pieces that are displayed in the virtual exhibition.
Kelsey Dykstra
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Dykstra is inspired by the idea of home, diversity and feminism, which she was able to explore through the Studio Arts Program. She contrasts growing up secluded on a farm in Huron County to moving to Hamilton where she was exposed to many diverse communities for the first time.
“[The program] definitely made me grow as a person in general . . . I never was really raised with [diversity or feminism] and it just really opened my eyes to a whole other world,” said Dykstra.
One of the challenges Dykstra experienced while transitioning her pieces online was finding ways to document her textile piece which featured embroidery of her series Bored Naked People on cotton. Ultimately, it was captured through her artist video.
In the future, she hopes to pursue art therapy. But in the meantime, she has launched a small business called Althea where she sells cards and posters.
Sarah Urban
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Urban didn’t always know she wanted to pursue art school. After finishing high school, she worked as a cake decorator and, four years later, was encouraged by her family to apply to university. Since entering the program, she has been able to step outside of her comfort zone and grow into an independent, mature artist.
Urban described her class as one big family.
“Unguarded to me is about how vulnerable we are with each other. And even though our artwork is so different, we’re always so supportive of other people’s ideas and supportive of each other and really, really vulnerable with each other . . . which is why we chose [the name Unguarded].”
The theme of her pieces for Unguarded stems from her interest in the environment and climate change. As a child, she spent a lot of time outdoors camping and hiking. Her work “Reclamation Series” tells the story of society's ignorance of global warming and alludes to Sodom and Gomorrah, Biblical cities that were ultimately destroyed for their ignorance and sins.
Urban currently works as a full-time art instructor in Oakville with plans to attend graduate school or to go into gallery shows. Whichever path she decides to go on, she will be able to take with her the lessons she learned from the Studio Arts Program on listening, helping and caring for others.
Celine Jeong
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As a Korean-Canadian artist, Jeong’s practice is influenced by her Presbyterian and Korean upbringing as well as her death anxiety and interest in children's storybooks.
Her Korean background is observed in Tigers which depicts this popular animal in Korean folklore. She also ties in narratives from Christianity in works such as Mother Sheep by examining the relationship between religious authority figures and death.
[A]s someone [who] struggles with a lot of death anxiety and who was very impacted by these teachings about death, I guess I just want to relate to others and their own childhood experiences with death and . . . articulating that moment where you're grappling with your first awareness of death,” said Jeong.
Reflecting back on her four years in the program, she was most impacted by the collaborative interactions with the other artists. The opportunities for feedback, critique and encouragement were critical pieces of her development. She is planning to open a business selling her art online and exploring webcomics and storytelling.
Shveta Sharma
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnQCme2EoYs[/embedyt]
Influenced by her artistic household and a creative writing course she took in high school, Sharma integrates her love for music and performance with her fascination for alternate realities in her practice. She creates immersive installations designed to activate the human psyche. This was also the foundation for her honours thesis, which was about using multisensory stimuli to evoke psychological and physiological responses and the impact of psychedelia on the brain.
In Insert Molly, which was captured through a video for the online exhibition, she plunges the viewers into infinite kaleidoscopic projections of light and body movements complemented by heavy bass, reverberation and rendered vocals.
“I aim to create my own world to fully submerge the viewer in . . . The conceptual idea of multiple existences and the creations or recreation of realities is further emphasized through the interaction and production of the piece,” Sharma explained.
The cancellation of the original April exhibition was emotionally difficult for her and the rest of her classmates, however, she is excited to finally share the worlds she has created.
Before entering the program, Sharma didn’t know performance could be considered art. The program changed her life by helping her discover her passion and define her path. Through her continuing studies in computer art, she will develop skills to build a fully immersive installation in the future.
From April 6 to April 17, the Studio Art program’s 2019 graduates will present the annual SUMMA exhibition. Entitled Counterpoint, the show will be curated by Hamilton textile artist Hitoko Okada. For the first time in over 30 years, the McMaster Museum of Art will not house the show due to its ongoing updates. The exhibition will instead take place at the Cotton Factory.
McMaster Studio Arts is a small program, with the fourth year class consisting of only 19 artists. With instruction on a range of media and a focus on environmentally responsible practices, the program has produced diverse artists who care about the world around them. Counterpoint means “to combine elements” and is fitting considering the amalgamation of their various styles and the balance they try to strike within their individual works.
The graduates organized the exhibition themselves. While it gave them a chance to learn more about the lives of professional artists, it also taught them to work together. Coordinating among 19 people was not easy and after some bumps in the road to find the perfect venue, they are all relieved to see the show finally coming together.
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Fernando spends a fair amount of time in nature, drawing and photographing the landscape around her. Back in the studio, she takes the colours, textures and lines from the environment to create the emotional and abstract landscape paintings that she’ll be displaying at Counterpoint.
“For me, [Counterpoint is] about… this the balance between the organic and the artificialness in my work… [I]t's taking… different colors… , textures and mark making and creating harmony and balance between all those different things within one image and creating a sort of peacefulness in that work,” Fernando explained.
Throughout the process of organizing the SUMMA show, Fernando learned how to survive as an artist. She feels that she now has an art practice of her own and regards her peers as professional contacts. As she leaves McMaster to pursue teaching, she will take those skills and contacts with her.
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For Lee, Counterpoint refers to the way her class’s wildly different works complement each other. Having spent four years critiquing and supporting one another’s practice, the exhibition represents the harmony between their different themes and materials.
The Korean-Canadian artist explores traditional Korean materials in her work. She portrays these traditional materials in a modern, digital format and then incorporates threading to unite the two ideas.
“I always get confused between Canadian and Korean aspects of myself… [T]his sense of detachment, trying to attach to something or being porous, kind of like a sponge, absorbing a lot of different cultures in order to make up my singular identity. And just like maintenance of this traditional and modern form of art,” Lee said.
Currently aiming to go into interactive design, Lee feels she learned the reality of being an artist. She has been exposed to the business side of the art world by learning to solve problems creatively and produce even without inspiration. The program’s push toward using materials to convey subtle themes has evolved Lee’s art practice.
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Cooper didn’t have a lot of purpose behind his art when he entered the studio arts program. Four years later, he feels he is a more deliberate artist and currently explores ideas around memory and coming of age. At Counterpoint, he will be presenting acrylic paintings of Westdale, where he grew up.
“[W]ith my work, I just try and talk about what that experience was like… [D]ifferent places… might not necessarily be important to other people but I guess I have certain memories there,” Cooper said.
The fact that this is the last art gathering of his university career saddens Cooper, but he knows the entire class is proud of the show. Despite the challenges they faced, they demonstrated that they could accomplish anything with collaboration. The different backgrounds and art practices of the class would not seem to mesh, but Cooper feels a nameless common thread unites their work.
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McVeigh believes process and environmentalism brings together her diverse class’ work. A self-identified environmental artist, she explores interactions between living things with one another and with inanimate objects. Having grown up in a small town near Point Pelee National Park, she spent a lot of time in nature growing up.
McVeigh’s work for Counterpoint is a series of photolithographic prints. This long and old process of creating images is meaningful to her. She tries to present her dystopian and nonsensical images in an aesthetically pleasing way with vintage elements.
“I use a lot of vintage imagery in my work… [A]fter World War II… there was the baby boom and they created a very unstable environment where it was a throwaway society. Nothing was fixed, it's all just thrown away… And then it wasn't until the ‘90s when the environment became a very serious topic,” McVeigh explained.
Her work is personal, but the program has made her more comfortable with speaking about her art. By sharing these narratives with her classmates and professors, they all grew close. She anticipates that this graduation show will be bittersweet, but there is a lot from her time at McMaster that she will be taking with her. She learned to critique her own work and reach out for help, which will help her as she pursues a career in sustainable architecture.
After graduating with her Bachelor of Fine Arts with minors in theatre and film studies and music, Conti will be going into teaching. Her teaching program will focus on educational art programming in the community, something that Conti is an advocate for. She is excited about the fact that Counterpoint will bring her program’s work off campus and into the Hamilton community.
Conti will be showing a five-piece installation consisting of floating boxes with deconstructed paintings in them. Her work revolves around her experiences with depression and anxiety to open a dialogue about mental health.
“[S]o for this body of work, there's five different stories to which I'm telling, one of which is the story about my mother's cancer. Normally… they're more negative experiences that I'm trying to understand in a more positive way. So my strokes are colors that are brighter in trying to… accept these experiences and… learn from them but also move forward,” Conti explained.
With her theatrical background, Conti sometimes feels as if she is performing herself. There is vulnerability in her portrayal of her life and she explores privacy versus vulnerability in her work. However, her time at McMaster gave her the confidence to tell her story through theatre, music and art.
The graduation show will open with a reception at the Cotton Factory from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on April 6. The graduating class looks forward to sharing their work with the Hamilton community.
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