By Rebecca Munday, Staff Writer

Art pieces often make viewers think about the world around them. The artists’ concrete goal of transforming a viewer’s perspective is rarely stated, but rather implied. However, the Visual Arts majors who have their work displayed in the Senior Art Exhibit titled, “Perspective” explicitly say to add a new perspective on the first wall of the exhibit. “This show is our shared journey and exploration that will leave you with a new PERSPECTIVE,” reads the show’s mission statement, shown on a wall in the Fine Arts gallery.

An aspect of the exhibit that makes it unique is the artists’ use of hashtags in place of titles for their individual collections of work to relate the work to social media. 

“This way if people wanted to make posts or reach out to the artists, they can easily use the hashtag,” artist Sarah Jones said. 

“We started a Facebook and Instagram page for viewers to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse and ‘hype’ up the show,” another featured artist, Morgan Zichettella said.

The artists used different inspirations and media to get the viewer to rethink their perspectives. Artists took inspiration from nature as well as the country’s social climate.

“That’s one of everybody’s strengths here. You’ve got something to say,” ceramics professor, John Jensen said. 

One wall features Zichettella’s 24 photographs of a dozen different millennials and eight different people from Generation Z. Zichettella’s collection is titled #damnmillennial. She took the pictures with the camera looking down on each subject to “symbolize society looking down on them.” Then, she used various dark room techniques to match the mood of the photograph. The exhibit’s layout mimics a yearbook page with depictions of Generation Z on the top row and the oldest millennials on the bottom row. 

The next portion of the exhibit is titled #chroniclesofaperfectionist by Jamal Richardson. Richarson’s collection consists of t-shirts in various earth tones that came to mind from exploring the wilderness on Skidaway Island. 

The exhibit next to Richardson’s is called #marshgarden by artist Autumn Shade and was also inspired by nature. Shade’s work is an installation featuring a miniature garden in the gallery, complete with dirt and plants from the artist’s own garden. It also features ceramic pots and a ceramic figure in the center. An owl sits on top of one of the walls that separates the garden from the rest of the exhibit. 

“The owl I share my home with became my inspiration as I began to feel connected to him and protected the more I learned about him,” said Shade. 

Sarah Jones created the next exhibit titled #expressionofintersectionality. She was inspired by the social climate of the country and political cartoons. She experimented with “things that people don’t like to talk about.” 

Kimberly Barron created the largest piece in the gallery as part of her #ambivalence collection. The piece is titled “Big Bad Buddha.” The piece is a larger re-creation of a smaller work of hers, “Bad Buddha” that is also on display. It depicts Buddha eating a pepperoni pizza and drinking alcohol. The work, which is now hollowed out, required over 1000 pounds of clay, four people to transport it into the gallery, and multiple repairs. 

The last collection of art in the gallery is titled #selfmutability. The artist Lauren Boivin used inspiration from her own health struggles as well as health struggles of her family members to create her multimedia collection. Her piece “Balloon Legs” is a sculpture of two separate legs hanging from the ceiling with balloon animals piled tied to the top of the legs. 

The Perspective exhibit will be in the Fine Arts Gallery from March 2-13. To hear more about the artists and their work, come to the reception on March 13 at 5:30 p.m. or find them on Instagram or Facebook @sixsensus.