Creighton Michael's exhibit Pattern Play II is on exhibit at Murray State University's Clara Eagle Gallery. The exhibit blends drawing and sculpture and allows the installers to be part of the creative process in deciding how the works are presented. On Sounds Good, Tracy Ross speaks with the artist along with Michael Martin, Director of Galleries on how students have helped shape the project.
Michael Martin says when they left to speak in the WKMS studio, there were 25 to 30 students in the gallery. He said it was great to see the gallery as a classroom and making the environment an interactive one, watching students have conversations as teams working towards an objective.
The idea came to Creighton Michael 11 years ago when he was involved in a museum exhibition for a similar work that combined sculpture and drawing. It took a while to install and the curator called before the opening concerned about time. He suggested that since there was an art school attached to the museum, that students should help install the work. Now, this project is designed to be installed by someone else, akin to the relationship between a composer and a musician.
What came out of the experience, he says, was a higher student attendance at the opening and of the lecture. He says this could be an interesting educational experience for students to become informed about participating and drawing. It was fascinating after 11 years to see the relationships and how the visual identity of the drawings shift, like duckweed on lakes.
For example, the drawing kits are design and pattern oriented. All of the drawing end up as patterns whether one recognizes the object, shape or forms. A number of them are in grid series. Within these grids there are certain structures - like music notes - where more freedom is given for the students to interpret. The schematics are now copied and printed and students get to sign them. They get to become part of the ownership of the exhibition, he says.
See photos of the installation at Clara Eagle Gallery's Facebook page
