A thick drove of students and parents lined the halls of the Todd Madigan Gallery on Thursday to muse, speculate, and celebrate the latest art exhibition on campus, NEXUS. The event is an annual attempt by the art department at CSU Bakersfield to connect with the student body and to showcase graduating senior’s latest creations.
There were as many themes, style, and genres as there were artists present. The work ranging from an allegorical statue of a withering true, metal crafted bikers hauling AK-47’s, and a looping DVD of a woman having her mouth prodded obnoxiously by an anonymous finger, to a post-apocalyptic piece with swirling clouds of brimstone over the lazy head of the poster-child of apathy.
While some of the work left students and parents awe-struck, unable to turn their heads, others left confused. One of the less conventional, but more heart-felt pieces shown this year was a piece created by Desiree Hernandez, a business and art major at CSUB. The project was a smoothly crafted board painted a glittering platinum with 100 LED blue light that turned off and on, showing a different percentage each time.
Beneath the piece was an audio jack with headphones that allowed viewers to overhear Desiree asking students, faculty, and staff yes or no questions concerning depression. The number of yes’s corresponding to the number of lights that turned on. “I surveyed a number of students, faculty, and staff on all levels, and all schools, about common factors that contribute to or symptoms of depression to find out how prevalent they were on our campus,” Hernandez said. Her inspiration to create this year’s project, that she’s been working on since Fall quarter, stems from a close to home experience with depression.
“I had a friend that committed suicide this past year,” she said. “And it was one of those things that you realize that it’s not as obvious as you would think it would be, and that is something that is echoed among a lot of the people that I’ve talked to.” Her desire in showcasing the piece was to get people to pay attention to their “human landscape” and to get in touch with their feelings of empathy and compassion. The piece that attracted the most attention was a post-apocalyptic piece created by Luke Boyd, a senior art major. In the painting that towered over the viewers, a seemingly disaffected youth is lounging lazily in a wasteland next to a washer machine that a pelican pecks its own wing on and a sack of garbage that it bleeds on below. The inspiration for the piece came stemmed from religious art.
“I was inspired by altar pieces,” Boyd said. “And so that is why I chose this very gothic piece…so like the tradition of having a visual in front of a church service…for something for people to look at during a sermon.” Boyd created the piece with religious symbolism deeply in mind. “I use the pelican as a symbol of Christ and the crucifixion because there’s this idea back in the day that they pierce themselves when food’s not available and feed their blood to their own chicks, and so there’s this self-sacrifice idea….the boy represents humanity.”
Eugene Tapia, a political science major, said that his favorite painting was Boyd’s altar piece. “I don’t know if majestic is the expression,” he said, laughing. “It just pops out on so many levels. I like the contrast and the colors.” Also speaking in favor of Boyd’s altar piece was junior art major Victor Lizarraga. Lizarraga said that his favorite aspect of the work was “just the way he’s able to articulate the human form and detail….but especially that bird.” His eyes raising in amazement at this last detail.
