Student Sara Cone looks at a collection of fired porcelain in the
gallery. Art is being displayed in the Pauling Center. The gallery is
open every Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Artist Autumn Higgins has multiple pieces on display including “Daily Snapshots,” a watercolor
on paper collection and “Small Objects,” made with a cone 10 reduction and fired porcelain,
Artists push perspectives
PAULING ART GALLERY SHOWCASES CERAMIC ART FROM 10 CREATORS
BY NICHOLAS ALLISON
J
The Pauling Center has been transformed from a sparse
environm ent tq a hall filled w ith art.
“ The Corner of Siskiyou and Indiana: Ten Years, Ten
People” is a ceramic art exhibit currently installed there.
Since the art did not arrive on tim e, the opening of the
gallery was delayed from Tuesday, Feb. 21, until Monday,
Feb. 27.
It is an exhibit first imagined by Robin Strangfeld, who
teaches ceramics at Southern Oregon University and has
been teaching there for 10 years. Nine students, from the
previous 10 years, were called up to help her create this
gallery, each contributing som ething to make it unique.
“ Our w o rk ten d s to p u sh w h at ceram ic is / ’ said
Strangfeld. “ We thought that m ight be an interesting
conversation to bring to [the cam pus].”
When the exhibit was first imagined, no central theme
was denoted. Then, a them e of place naturally form ed
w ith images o f China and New Orleans, finding a place
j
here beside letters Connecting the artists together and
numerous pieces that brought it all together. Between
all o f them , this sense o f place and your place in the
world form ed organically.
Jess Volk was one o f the artists, and her piece focused
4 Clackamas Print MARCH 8,2017 theclackamasprint.com
on the idea of perspective. She explored the them e b y
looking back into the past and forward into the future,
using new and interesting materials alongside a storm
glass just like the ones used by the navigators o f old to.
predict weather patterns, albeit somewhat inaccurately.
“ W e’ve already entered, and are further entering this
age, with new culture and interracial mixing,” said Volk.
She wanted to give perspective on that in her piece.
“ Hugging is tangible in the
moment, but once that moment’s
gone you ju st have the memory.”
-A njaD uB ois
Anja DuBois, another artist, did a piece about intimacy.
She wanted to explore having people gather and hug
one another. They weren’t romantically involved. Many
didn’t even know each other, but that w asn’t the point.
“ I had them all place these sheets of aluminum foil
betw een th em ,” said DuBois. “ I wanted to map that
space betw een th em .”
A s to why she did the piece this way, she said, “ I wanted
to make these objects that represented something that’ s
not tangible. Hugging is tangible in the moment, but
once that m om ent’ s gone, you just have the memory
of it. I wanted to capture that moment, then translate
them through a number of materials, to see what they’d
becom e.”
DuBois was quite fond of what she accomplished. “ All
of them are more and more, sort of degraded and weird,
as tim e goes on ,” said DuBois.
These three, and seven m ore, had in teresting and
unique stories to tell through their work and those they
worked with. Explore them, take part in the conversation
and experience it alongside others. Get ah understanding
of these artists and the place they see them selves in in
the world.
The art gallery w ill remain open until March 24, and
it is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every Monday through
Friday.
“ Migratory Flux” is another gallery that w ill open in
Niemeyer Center on M arch 13 through March 26.