photos by celeste fowles

Underscoring Week Three of the studio art theses currently on display in Zilkha Gallery is the notion of escape, whether it be from the confines of time, the anxieties of daily life, the emotional aftermath of personal tragedy, the horror of fearful images, or the notion that there is only one way of seeing.

Emily Bronkesh-Buchbinder ’00, a graphic design major, designed a web-site about graphic art at Wesleyan. Her piece, entitled "/art/graphics," consists of three computers already set at the web-site, www.wesleyan.edu/~ebronkeshbuc/thesis. At the computers, viewers can search the site and learn about the history, faculty, courses, and facilities of printmaking, Javanese woodblock printmaking, typography and graphic design at Wesleyan. They can even read about student made books and discover how to make a book themselves. In fact, Bronkesh-Buchbinder’s project is itself a book of sorts.

"Part of the idea behind my thesis is the notion of creating a universal book, precisely what an internet web-site is. Anybody can look at my site any time," she said.

Though her web creation will only be on display in Zilkha through Sunday, April 16, as an internet site, it will endure long after the theses exhibition. Bronkesh-Buchbinder’s project
represents an innovation in ideas of what studio art theses can be. 

"I think she took on a huge new thing. 

• "I have taken imagery that is disconcerting and recreated them with fine, delicate lines and beautiful colors that draw the eye in, creating a contrast between the imagery and the way it is represented." -Joe Vidich ’00

Ross Smith’s ’00 architectural design, entitled "Dematerialization," expresses his conceptions about yoga.

"It is an architectural materialization of my conception of yoga as an activity that enables one to strip away anxiety and escape from a daily agenda by moving into a more natural realm," said Smith. His bass wood design, set amongst carved cardboard representing the rocky-cliffs of Martha’s Vineyard that overlook the water, consists of a yoga center, bath, and parking lot set along a stairway that progresses downwards along the cliffs toward the water.

"As you move along the staircase you are given the opportunity to pass through a wall into various spaces. The spaces you enter successively become more open to views and wind.
The progression is symbolic of the increased depth of breathing and awareness of environment that you attain during the practice of yoga," wrote Smith in an explanation of his work.

Smith’s design, which he refers to as a filtration system that enables one to gradually strip away material objects and structures, contains symbolic elements that represent a movement toward nature. Though not present in the model, water is meant to collect in the parking lot and flow down along the stairway towards the beach, symbolically representing the movement of human beings within his structure towards a level of increased awareness. In addition, lining the walls of the gallery are computer-generated pictures of the model; gray, blue, and yellow images that give the viewer a sense of actually inhabiting the model’s space.

"Violation," by Jessica Fantz ’00 is an interactive installation piece about date rape. In the center of the gallery, Fantz placed a bed surrounded by beer bottles. The bed’s red pillow,
strategically placed near the alcohol, and unmade covers powerfully suggest that the viewer has just arrived late at a scene where something far from innocent occurred. On the gallery’s wall, are three mirrors, each lined with paper mache hands in various positions. As the viewers peer at their owns reflections, they are forced to feel the emotions implied by the positioning of the hands, perhaps those once felt by Fantz herself.

"Though all the parts of the installation are separate pieces, they really need each other to work. The works deal with both personal and

societal aspects of date rape. For example, the two figurative pieces, of a torso and a leg, are self-portraits made of paper mache and mixed media. In contrast, the mirrors speak to the viewer. They are about hiding and making discoveries," she said. Fantz’s thesis also includes four black desks, where viewers can sit and view videos ranging from "Showgirls" to "Social Sex Attitudes in Adolescence."

While Fantz’s pieces deal with the aftermath of horrible experiences, Joseph Vidich ’00 created several woodblock prints and etchings that show how horror can be beautiful. In his pieces, he uses delicate lines and strong colors to transform gas masks into pleasurable images.

"I have taken imagery that is disconcerting and recreated them with

fine, delicate lines and beautiful colors that draw the eye in, creating a contrast between the imagery and the way it is represented," he said. Vidich’s work also deals with themes of birth, evolution, and the contrasts between night and day, dark and light, and good and evil.

Both Gregorio Santa Maria ’00 and Chloe Alejandra Garcia-Roberts ’00 leave making interpretations of their abstract pieces to the viewer.

Santa Maria’s "Aleppo: Abstractions of a Syrian City" is an abstract architectural piece composed of wood and dyed rope.

"The work is based on both experiential research and urban analysis, as I spent actual time in Aleppo. The goal of the project is for the viewer to make their own connections between the pieces and their own narratives," he said. Viewers can be helped along by the quotes from Italo Calvino lining the walls and the presence of Santa Maria’s sketchbook.

Garcia-Robert’s untitled thesis is a mixture of printmaking, photography, and drawings all based on light-structures.

"They all are abstractions of looking at the way light reflects and refracts," she said.

Finally, Emily K. Larned ‘00’s "75 Books" deal with ways of seeing, how words shape experiences, the persuasiveness of written language, how books are both objects of education and subversive art, and the printing process. Larned created 25 copies of three books, which she entitled "Forgetting the Visual Field, "The Eye is the Camera, aptly shaped like an old field box camera, and "Look See Language." 

In an explanation book, "75 Books," though Larned declares that her work is influenced by John Berger’s "Ways of Seeing," she explains that the primary impetus for her piece is a book she has not yet created about how as a young girl she did not know that there were people on television but rather merely colorful shapes that represented various characters, a way of seeing that was transformed when she got glasses.

After perusing through Larned’s books, the viewer can return to the other theses of the exhibition and view them anew.