JCJC hosts unique art display
Ellisville, MS - This month’s art show at Jones County Junior College could be summed up in one phrase: off-the-wall. There are literally works of art hanging from the ceiling, some are just “unique” because of its contents and some work is being called eclectic. The creative works of three artists, Adrienne Callander, Rowan Haug and Robert Ring will have you looking at art in a different way at the Eula Bass Lewis Art Gallery. The exhibit is free to the public and will be on display through March 27, except during Spring Break, March 9-13.
“This show is all about theory,” said Mark Brown, JCJC art instructor. “Students will hopefully recognize some design theory looking at Callander’s work in particular. Some may think the artists have forgotten art theory because it is very different than some art shows we’ve hosted before.”
Callander’s work is the only art hanging on the wall in frames, appearing to be your typical framed art work. Looking closer, Brown insists art theory like the “Golden Mean” will be obvious to students of art. She uses pieces of brown paper bags and material with deliberate stitching and placement.
Pieces of material and brown paper bags are patched together and sewn to create art.
“Ultimately, I take things apart to discover new wholes. Sewing also marks time and, as a process, runs parallel with my interest in beginnings and ends. Sometimes I extend a material history. I might restructure an object so that past and present identities exist in tandem,” said Callander, who currently lives in Starkville and teaches at MSU. She is also the art gallery curator and served as the Interim Coordinator for the Sculpture Program at Mississippi State.
The artwork of Rowan Haug can be found hanging from the ceiling, draped over a display block or pinned to the wall. The Starkville native teaches 3-D Design and works with the MSU art department’s Fiber and Paper Arts Club. Her current work is mostly the “hands-on” type of creative display of art work.
“I choose to work with textiles and the methods, techniques and processes of slow making, of handwork and hand-dye. They have a memory (like) your grandmother’s quilt made from your mom’s baby clothes, or a material memory like natural dyes made from plants or minerals that bond with a new fiber or fabric surface,” said Haug.
Japanese native, Robert Ring’s work can be described as gaudy, colorful and “off-the-wall” to most viewers. He is famous for taking items made in Japan, like cheap objects you’d find in a thrift store, and combining them with other found items to re-create a new form of 3-D art.
Another unusual group of trinkets made in Japan are stuffed in the wire-frame of an old seat cushion in this artwork from Robert Ring which is on display at JCJC.
“I have tried to create a context for the viewer which is derived from their sum. Cheap objects produced in multitude that individually only announce their poor taste but in mass repetition create an aesthetic appeal. Seeking an aesthetic that is the sum of these objects but also for me is also the suggestion that illustrates my heritage,” said Ring.
His father was an American soldier during WWII when he met his Japanese mother. Ring moved to the U.S. when he was two-years old. His artwork intertwines his ethnicity with his American identity.
Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. through 3 p.m., and Fridays, 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. For special accommodations call the gallery at 601-477-4148.
Photos and Story by Teresa McCreery JCJC Media-Public Relations Director
