I Give Art One More Chance

Art exhibits are the last place you'll find me. Walking around a hushed gallery pretending to understand the canvas on the wall slathered in mud and clay with a dash of pigs blood is not my idea of a good time. I’ve written before about past experiences with fine art exhibits (check out my first blog post if you haven’t been an avid reader of this blog). In short, I’d rather watch paint dry then actually see that paint once it’s been affixed to a toaster and placed in an art exhibit.

But after reading the reviews of Columbia C33’s newest show Access Excess: The Scene Behind the Stage I decided I’d give the gallery - and art exhibits - another opportunity.

When I first walked in I knew immediately that this show was different. The gallery was divided into four sections: The Wall, The Experience, The Road, and Record Shop, each representing a different aspect of the shows overall theme of making the viewer feel as if the viewer is at a live concert. “The visual elements that often fade into the background of rock shows, plays and performances of all kinds - band t-shirts, posters, album art, post-event photos, fashion, advertisements and fliers - are the focus and displayed objects of Access Excess.” explains the show’s Press Release.

The show features work by Sarah Sarsaw, Stacey Huffstutler and Rick Cohen, among others who worked to combine a variety of majors. From photography, graphic design, to illustration and even fashion. The Wall, Experience, and Road sections all were filled with photographs, some mounted in CD cases, others hanging alone. The pictures themselves depict live musical events and are filled with energy, bright colors, and the pure passion that resides within the performers, the fans, and even the photographers taking them.

Another wall, featuring the work of Darron Alexander, Ronda Debbern, Jillian Fisher, Greg Ochab, and Nigel Ridgeway, is covered in band posters representing both the marketing campaigns and the emotional and cultural missions of the performances themselves. One of my favorite pieces in the exhibit was a wall covered by a massive graffiti mural that channels all of the shows energy into a single piece.

I think the reason I can connect to the exhibit as a whole, when past exhibits in this same gallery have not been interesting to me, is because of the feelings that the pieces themselves evoke. While in the past I have felt as if the pieces have required vast amounts of art knowledge and intense thoughts, these pieces are so real and alive they emote both the feeling of actually being at the events portrayed and many of the ideals behind this college as well.

As I walk the gallery my gaze drifts from the pieces to the large windows looking out onto the bustle of Wabash Avenue, then back to more pieces within the space. We as a school strive to unite both the city in which we live and the art we create within it. I think this exhibit displays both of these aspects. On one hand it explores the art involved in putting on a live show, on the other it displays the urbanity of our camps and our art community as a whole. While the show has since closed, the thought behind it emphasizes what I feel should be the driving factor of all artwork; attempting to evoke a feeling of reality within an enclosed medium. Art should transport us somewhere else, even if that place is familiar to us. We should be able to look at a picture and feel as if we are its subject. The pieces within this gallery allow us to do just that.




Photos provided by the Columbia College website.

Columbia's weird, gay, recycled Melting Pot: The Office of Student Engagement

When trying to determine a place that embodies Columbia, the possibilities don’t number very many. Not only the essence of the college as a place for people of all interests, but also as our urban campus set in the middle of downtown Chicago made it difficult to find a central place that is Columbia. The place I was finally able to decide on was the Office of Student Engagement (and no, this time I didn’t choose it just because it’s convenient to me). I feel like the office is truly what Columbia prides itself on; being open, inviting, and supportive of everyone who is looking to turn their dreams into careers in the arts.

Located on the 4th Floor of the newly renovated 926 S. Wabash Building, the Office of Student Engagement, or as it’s affectionately called, the Loft, is the home base of all the student clubs on campus. You and nine of your like minded friends can start a club for just about anything. Columbia already has more then 60 active student organizations. The major clubs include Latino Alliance, EPIC, and Common Ground. Clubs work on issues from recycling to L.G.B.T. rights; basically put, walking the aisles of small desks and computer stations one can see the wide variety of clubs that are here at Columbia.

The school never lets you forget about the Columbia belief of individualism as key and discrimination as evil. While the second tenant in that sentence is pretty much universal, not many schools are like Columbia in the respect, and even the promotion, of truly being you. Waking down Wabash or Michigan Ave you get to see the Columbia student body as we walk to class, work, or home, but in places like the Office of Student Engagement, one can truly see what the Columbia student is all about.

The Loft gives these clubs a home, a place from which to branch out and do what their club has set out to do, whether advance Civil Rights for Gays and Lesbians or celebrating the beauty of Japanese Animation. The college has worked hard to create a space where students can come, work, hold meetings and events, or just hang out and talk with their friends. Filled with couches, chairs, pillows, and a newly installed big screen TV, the Loft just want’s you to come hang out in it’s comfy confines.

As I walked around taking pictures, EPIC (the recycling people) were occupying the small meeting room making buttons for their new recycling education campaign. Later on in the day the Student Government association took over the large meeting area to discuss upcoming Senate Elections. While observing the space a near constant flow of students came into the Loft. They were there both to work on official club business but also just enjoy the space in between classes.

On the streets we see what a Columbia student looks like, but if we’re truly going after the Columbia “spirit” we can’t judge that student by what jeans they’re wearing or what they decide to pierce their body with. Instead we have to see that student in action; doing what they came here to Columbia to do, and more importantly what they do outside of the classroom environment when they are the ones making the decisions. With a student club, it is truly run by the students. While final monetary approval comes from faculty advisers, the clubs decide their own schedules, plan their own meetings and events, and even design their own logos, posters, and merchandise

Not many schools would allow for a club like NORML to advocate for revisions in our national drug enforcement laws. Columbia creates an atmosphere not often found on college campuses. While hearing about how awesome and accepting we all are of everyone can become tiring, the truth of the matter is, at Columbia there is a place for everyone. And not to sound to cliche (or like this is a poorly written ad for how awesome the office is) the Office of Student Engagement is the physical representation of that vague and lofty ideal of acceptance of all. And if Columbia truly does offer a place for everyone, then this office is a pretty good place to start your search to find that place.

Art & Copy: Advertising in the 21st Century

Advertising is all around us. Cliche I know, but its true. We see them on buses, subways, store windows, magazines, websites, even text messages. Escaping ads has become an impossibility in our modern world.

On Monday, April 12th, Columbia College’s Marketing Communications Department teamed up with the Portfolio Center to put on an Art & Copy event at the 1104 S. Wabash Film Row Cinema. The event brought two established advertising executives to campus in conjunction with a screening of the 2009 award-winning documentary film Art & Copy.

The event began with John Tepachio (a copy writer) and Chris Gedress (an art director) talking about their experiences in the advertising industry; where they came from, and how they got to where they are now. They spoke about their moving around ad houses throughout the midwest, before finally ending up with firms in Chicago. Both Michigan State grads, they have since relocated here to the city as their jobs shifted.

One of the most important aspects of the industry that the panel centered around was the importance of being versatile in todays changing ad game. Never before have businesses been able to reach perspective costumers on the level now possible. They explained how, in todays market, an ad creator needs to be able to work many jobs. No longer are the days when you could just write copy or focus solely on the layout. Instead you may be called on to create every aspect of the ad itself.

Following a short question and answer period, the film Art & Copy was screened. The documentary, directed by Doug Gray, focuses on many of the most influential advertising campaigns of the last 40 years. Some of the executives featured in the film were behind such historic and long-lasting campaigns as Nike’s “Just Do It”, New York City’s “I Love NY", and the dairy industries moniker “Got Milk.” Both the panel and the film centered around quasi revolutions in the ad industry. The first being the creative revolution of the 60’s which was a focus of the film, and the current revolution in which advertisers are making the move to Facebook and Twitter to reach new costumers.

Such “revolutions” are what Columbia trains us for everyday. We are tasked with creating art in the ever-changing media landscape of the 21st Century. Whether filmmakers, musicians, or advertisers, we all are all creating works of art with which we hope to move our respective audiences. We as artists must keep up with these changes as we look to creating relevant pieces in a society inundated with so called “art”. As we make these changes we have to not only keep ourselves in our pieces but also bring aspects of modern culture into our work.

This event brought these realities to the forefront of discussion as seasoned industry professionals were able to interact and answer the questions of college students who will soon be entering the real world. We were told the importance of personal websites in order to reach perspective employers as even the ways in which we get hired have changed along with the job descriptions themselves. Most importantly, we have to believe in the art we are creating. As the art itself is ever changing, we as artists must be there to back up what we’ve created.

The Mafiosa's

I guess one show on the trials and tribulations of a group of New York City lady socialites wasn’t enough for Kevin Wade. After helping create the highly successful Sex in the City, Wade decided to copy the very same method, this time minus the sex. With Cashmere Mafia, Wade attempted at make the transition from the foul mouthed booze filled orgy that is HBO to the “comfy” yet censored confines of ABC with Mafia. While the show seemed to copy every other, non-sexy aspect of Sex in the City, they still found a way to wring gallons of drama out of the series’ pilot.

Cashmere Mafia centers around four, high powered female executives living in New York City. Mia Mason (played by Lucy Liu) a magazine publisher, Zoe Burden (Frances O’Connor) is the manager of a Mergers and Acquisitions firm, Juliette Draper (Miranda Otto) is the COO of a hotel and resort conglomerate, with Caitlin Dowd (Bonnie Somerville) a cosmetics V.P., filling out the foursome. These ladies have been best friends since college and have rode each others’ coattails - and contacts - up the New York social and business ladders.

On paper, the show seems like a interesting take on sexism in the work place as these four glass-ceiling-smashing leading ladies attempt to portray. After watching the pilot episode, though, the sheer ridiculousness of the show comes to light. Within the 42 minute pilot there’s a wedding proposal (and later retraction), an affair, a heated promotion, a dance recital, nanny drama, and enough cliche women's power jams in the soundtrack to make even the most loquacious housewife balk. Mafia quickly falls into a daytime soap with a sappy wedding proposal two minutes into the show, only for the happy couple to walk into work a minute later to learn they will be competing for a promotion that will leave one the new publisher, the other without a job. These “dramatic” moments continue to drop throughout the episode, concluding in Lucy Liu receiving the promotion only to see her presumed fiance pull out of the deal because he expected to win. And of course, the episode ends with the Mafiosa’s sitting around “their” table at a posh downtown eatery, sipping on champaign, making a plan to find the perfect man for an affair payback mission.

While watching the show I couldn't help but think to myself, “why would women watch this?” With this realization i notice I’d already made a few huge assumptions about the show. First that the audience is completely comprised of women, the second being that people actually watched it. The second question was easily answered by ABC’s failure to pick up Mafia for a second season. The question of audience seems clear to me as well. I don’t see a man, whether straight or gay, tuning in to watch this show. I honestly couldn’t have estimated its audience to be anybody past housewife's looking to it as a visual interpretation of their wildest dreams. Surely women like the ones portrayed in the show weren't rushing home from their dinner meetings to tune in. Then it hit me that the producers knew their audience and they were going after it full force. Much like with Fox’s new man-centric drama Human Target which chronicles the freelance missions of Christopher Chance, a Fed turned mercenary who can rescue anyone from anywhere no matter if he has to bring down a multi-national corporation or corrupt government in his wake. While Mafia has affairs, champagne, and swanky charity events, Target has guns, explosion, and sexy damsels who always seem to find themselves in distress.

Sometimes, we as TV viewers don’t really want to have to think about what we’re watching. We want to plop down on the couch with a bowl of popcorn and a Bud Light and laugh, smile, and cry for 42 minutes. These shows allow us to simply have fun basking in the ridiculousness that is scripted television. So even if I couldn’t care less about the ladies latest “frenemy” or favorite new restaurant, I’m sure they’d say the same things about the explosions and pretty ladies over on Fox. We watch only what we like and therefore television excecs, bent on getting us to watch their shows, tailor those shows to our every whim; no matter how sad and utterly terrible that whim is.