Art students have been hard at work preparing installation art pieces to be displayed in the Holland Centennial Commons.
There will be four installation pieces on display in various locations in the building.
Installation art is a fairly modern form of art where pieces are created with a specific location in mind.
“Installation pretty much means that it’s meant for a specific site, and it incorporates sometimes two-dimensional and three-dimensional art forms or manipulation,” art professor Dennis Martinez said.
Martinez started teaching installation art classes this semester and decided to approach Librarian John Burns, the library liaison to the art department, about having projects created in the class to be displayed in the Holland building.
“We thought this would be helpful since this is such a public building,” Burns said. “We have a lot of traffic that comes through here.”
Not only will the location be helpful in getting exposure to students’ artwork, but the process they have to go through will benefit them as well.
Burns, with the help of Martinez, put a proposal through the HCC committee, which would identify sites where the artwork would be displayed, the amount of time it will be displayed, and address any concerns.
In order for students to display their work, they have to be approved by two committees that will review their installation pieces.
“The whole idea is obviously to help the students get a little more acclimated to how it’s going to be if they decide to create installation art,” Burns said. “Obviously they’re going to have to go through some type of a jury process and presenting stuff to galleries and rejection.”
Martinez said four installations are being created by three students per installation. Two of them are literary themed with one on the third and first floor. Two more are natural science-related with one on the fourth floor and the other on the second.
Chelsea Martinez, a freshman art major from St. George, and Ed Fox, a freshman art major from St. George, are constructing a storybook with a fairytale theme. It will be displayed on the third floor by the children’s literature section.
Chelsea Martinez said the class has given her certain skills in installation and has created the opportunity for her work to be seen by others.
“[The class] gives you the capacity to fill the space and have people talk about your work,” Chelsea Martinez said.
Fox said installation art requires visually seeing the piece in its space.
“It’s about the environment and the viewer’s reaction to the space,” Fox said. “You want to picture the art and where it’s going.”
Chelsea Martinez said the experience will benefit her in any future art endeavors.
The projects will be on display in the Holland building when they are completed. Martinez said he projects the installations to be completed on Thursday.
Not only is the student experience beneficial, but the people who come in contact with the installations will get to appreciate their unique nature.
“I really think that part of a library is not only to have great things to read but beautiful things to look at,” Burns said.
