Alive & Kicking

Sculpture and Movement students inhabit artwork like never before in 808 exhibition

Spark Volume 3, Issue 2 | by Daniella Weiss (COM’19)

Illuminating the 808 Gallery since the start of this fall semester is a captivating exhibit created by one dynamic artist— Claire Ashley. While the exhibit, titled (((CRZ.F.F4NRS.AAK))), has been standing strong since early September, the gallery’s opening ceremony and reception were held on October 14. The opening consisted of a group of CFA students interacting with and performing inside Ashley’s work while spectators of the gallery wandered the room in wonderment at the massive sculptures. A few theatre students and one graduate sculpture student were invited by the artist herself to step inside these structures and bring the pieces to life.

When walking along Commonwealth Avenue, one’s eye can’t help but be caught by these giant inflatable structures splattered with neon colors and forming various shapes. Mallika Chandaria (CFA’20), a sophomore undergraduate student in the School of Theatre, was part of the group asked to perform. She attributes her knowledge of movement, which she took into this performance, to her past lessons from Yo-EL Cassell, Assistant Director of Movement at CFA. “The way that we are interacting with the pieces in this gallery is totally shaped by everything we learned from Yo-EL, and that we continue to learn with his guidance,” said Chandaria (CFA’20). “The biggest thing I learned from him is that in movement it’s about responding to what the space is giving you or what other people are giving you in the moment.”

Professor Won Ju Lim, who leads a New Genres class, had previously discussed and hoped to collaborate with Yo-EL to have their students interact in a performance together. “We did not know about Claire’s exhibition, and we were so pleasantly surprised that her work is perfect for a collaboration between a performance and a sculpture class,” said Lim. In the skilled professor’s words, her New Genres class highlights a “non-traditional approach to art.” Lim aims to convey a focus on “the spatial-temporal and subject-object relationships” within new genres of art. In this perspective, Ashley’s exhibit served as a vehicle to reinforce these lessons within students.

Chandaria and two fellow School of Theatre students were invited to participate in the exhibition performance, along with MFA Sculpture student Kayla Arias (CFA’19). She took on the role of one of the structures as well—hers an inflatable duck. “I am essentially inserting myself and my movement to take over the alien bodies that are these sculptures. I’m giving them life, I’m giving them movement, maybe sound, and intentions—like making movements to mimic certain motions,” said Arias. In further detailing the experience, Arias described it as “easy to embody [the sculpture]—once you’re inside, it’s almost like you’re in the womb and then you’re free to move and act and express as you want. That’s the fun part.” The other students were also excited to take on these sculptures with their own interpretations of how each one would move if animated.

In preparation for the official opening, these CFA students engaged in a Skype conversation with Ashley earlier in the week. The Chicago-based Scottish artist’s wishes for the students’ participation allowed for a lot of creative freedom. School of Theatre undergraduate sophomore Ellie Ricker (CFA’20) explained how Claire was interested in having a ballet dancer perform to see how their interactions differed. “I am a ballet dancer, so I get to take both sides, from Yo-EL’s and my own background in dance, and see how those mix and what I can do with each one within the shape and exploring the space,” said Ricker.

During Claire’s conversation with the students, she aimed to convey the meaning behind the meticulously crafted title, (((CRZ.F.F4NRS.AAK))). The title was crafted as an homage to text language—translating to ‘Crazy Female Foreigners, Alive and Kicking,’—in today’s climate a poignant and subversive message of bold, autonomous control of the female body and voice. Arias shared that Claire challenged the group “to think about coming up with a coded language so that you can communicate inside the sculpture with the people outside of it.” The idea of vague, but individualized communication was important to the artist. “I was interested in having a conversation across different generations. A particular generation is going to be able to interpret that title, whereas my generation and older could not probably,” said Ashley.

A major component in bringing the exhibit’s opening and performance together was CFA uniting different schools to bring their own artistic approach to the project. The School of Theatre student performers and artists were thrilled by the idea of intertwining their individual knowledge to bring Claire Ashley’s work to life. “I like that the idea of movement or language can be translated from visual arts to theatre to music. That is a concept that is universal in the arts,” said Chandaria.

Derek Martinez (CFA’20), an undergraduate sophomore in the School of Theatre, discussed the unique spaces of overlap in the schools of Visual Arts, Theatre, and Music. “From a standpoint of learning about the mindsets of the communities that exist in SVA, SOT, and SOM, the fact is— there are different ways of approaching your art.” The factor of having student performers from different areas of study with CFA was crucial in Ashley’s perspective as well, to get a range of interpretations towards the artwork. “I’ve really loved working with these guys because they’ve had so many great suggestions in terms of how to activate and interact with these forms,” shared Ashley. “I’m constantly learning from both how the forms operate in the world and how people use and respond to them.”

Before spectators arrived and the students’ performance began, Claire advised the group to “vocalize in order to find one another in the space.” This talented group of CFA students was able to exercise their individual approaches to the art and move freely about the gallery space in each sculpture. Claire Ashley was, in all, extremely pleased with the contributions of these CFA students and the way the gallery performance came together. “This type of space is really great for that, and this type of university is great because it’s a much larger environment and a much wider group of people that get access to this,” said the artist. “And that makes me super happy.”