A study of opposites was on display in Ebert Art Center this week, as Adria Hankey-Brown ’11 and Kathleen Mazzei ’11 debuted their studio art Independent Study exhibitions. In her piece “Child’s Play: Nature’s Movement,” Hankey-Brown explored children’s relationship with nature and the bold curiosity they harness to approach its phenomena. Mazzei gave shape to† three universal human fears in her sculptural exhibition “Fear of…”
Hankey-Brown’s acrylic paintings were accompanied by a number of mobiles and plywood cut-outs, additions that sometimes appeared to be extensions of the canvases’ framework. Her pieces depicted various bright scenes of children interacting with the natural world.
On one canvas at the front of the gallery, a group of four children fly kites in an amber sky, as large wooden green and blue kites adorn either side of the painting. In another multimedia piece, a child blows a pussy willow apart in the wind, and a dozen wooden models of the flower are pinned around the canvas. A mobile of crimson and gold leaves twirls around a painting of children playing in an autumn scene.
“I incorporated personal memories into each painting,” said Hankey-Brown, who also focused on natural themes in her studio art Junior I.S. “I loved being outdoors as a child, and I still have that child-like enthusiasm.”
“Child’s Play: Nature’s Movement” is accompanied by a didactic including a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, which reads, in part, “to speak truly, few adult persons can see nature … The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and heart of the child. The lover of nature is he … who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”
Hankey-Brown tried to capture this idea by illustrating the “playful interactions between children and nature. Childhood is a time in life when children see Mother Earth for all she has to give.”
Conversely, Mazzei focused on a much darker side of the human psyche in “Fear of…” In stark opposition to Hankey-Brown’s bright paintings stood Mazzei’s metal and wire sculptures, representing the three kinds of fear Mazzei explained she personally struggled with this year ó fear of change, fear of losing control and fear of death.
“I believe in bringing these notions of fear into a three-dimensional space allows me to accept and understand them in a cathartic way,” Mazzei wrote in her didactic.
Mazzei used metal frames and burned wire screens to create the bodies of three minimalist human figures. Their faces were shaped from a beige mottled clay, with expressions characterized by painted gaping, black hole mouths and jaws outstretched in silent screams and cries.
Each of the sculptures is accompanied by an inanimate object. One kneels crying over an ornate pedestal (that was actually crafted from manipulated, painted cardboard) that holds a tiny replica of the larger sculpture, a cowering clay figure. Another points, arms outstretched, to a series of nine cardboard paintings, each depicting a similarly sexless figure in the fetal position. The utter desperation of the sculptures’ faces is incredibly eerie, especially when the figures they reach for seem to have absolutely no placating response.
Both exhibits can be viewed at Ebert Art Center throughout the week. Hours are 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Monday through Friday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The final four studio art I.S. exhibitions will be displayed next week.