RISD senior illustrators showcase work in first gallery of semester
RISD is often heralded by Brown students as location of all things cool, and the "Illustration Senior Show: Pretty Hurts," was no exception. The first of nine groups of illustration majors presented their collections of artwork on Monday evening in an intimate space complete with stick on diamond teardrops and a cutout of Thranduil. Since it's expected that the art will be fantastic/beautiful/thought-provoking, I found five unexpected things about the show that will make you want to go to the other eight coming up this year.
Food: It appears that no event is viable without the appeal of free food, and an art show is no exception. The Facebook event promised HEAVY refreshments, and the actual event did not disappoint. However, it's definitely to your advantage to get there on the early side. Heavy refreshments entail fancy cheese and fruit, along with nonalcoholic (surprising turn of events?) sparkling cider. One of the artists I talked to immediately asked if I had tried the food. Clearly, they were proud of their culinary efforts. Business Cards: If there was ever any doubt that art school kids are cooler, just look at their business cards. Instead of listing the different Microsoft applications they are "skilled in," the illustration majors had mini versions of their artwork as business cards, making me take way too many of them to put up in my dorm room.Stuff you can touch: My biggest fear in an art museum is accidentally hitting a painting and ruining everything, so I'm always excited when exhibitions have big signs saying "please touch me." A number of the artists chose to include sketchbooks or photo albums visitors could flip through without fear of breaking anything. The notebooks provided a look into the thought process of the artist, and once again proved that even when they weren't trying, they made cool stuff. Grace Zhang '16, an artist in the exhibition, said that the show was actually super rushed, and most of the pieces she "pulled out of her ass."
Funny names: Notoriously, art pieces either have super vague names or super boring names, like "Girl in store" or "sad feeling." However, some of the names at the show were too clever not to share. Carlos Womack '16 did a whole series based on meat puns–highlights included a bunch of steaks buckled into airplane seats titled "Steaks on a plane," a piece of bacon sunbathing called "Melanoma de Carne," and the one of literally just ten pieces of bacon, called "Sizzle Swine," below. "Doggy Cups" was a bunch of small cups modeled to look like dogs. My personal favorite, by Tomi Okuno '16, was entitled "Mermaid Booty," above.
Range: Perhaps the most surprising thing about the illustration show was the range of media. I came in expecting all 2-D, hand-drawn art, but instead saw everything from collages to paintings to sculptures to fashion. Zhang, whose own art, below, deals with "adolescence, girlhood, and family," said that what united illustration was not so much a style or media, but the idea that art should be given a narrative. Most of the art is done outside of class, she said, and it tends to come out better when students put their own narrative in it, beyond what a certain class expects.
Bonus: Even RISD students aren't afraid to whip out a selfie stick.
Images via and Sarah Campbell Tucker '19.
