On Thursday night, the Visual Arts Center showcased frat boys and Red Bull cans. It was not the typical weekend festivities, but instead the Cinco, the art opening for senior artists Drew McDonald, Amy Ear, Honora Dunham, Cotton Estes, and Kate Hourihan.
Showcasing the artists' most recent work, the exhibit combines individual installations with a collaborative mural in the Fishbowl.
Leaving their final mark on Bowdoin, the artists "put a lot of work into making the show as good, professional and exciting as possible, which is why we all committed to showing new work and collaborating in the Fishbowl on a site-specific piece," said Dunham.
The mural, said Ear, began with the sole premise that each artist would work with the color black.
The end result is impressive and shows serious talent and unity within the group, which group members say can be attributed to the group's commitment to a cohesive product.
Hourihan is excited to reveal the outcome, saying, "I am happy that the group came together to show new work instead of documenting the history of our Bowdoin art careers. It's already been very rewarding for me to have worked so closely with a group of art majors and friends."
The individual installations effectively engage their audience. Each artist expressed a goal in the placement and creation of each piece.
Dunham created a series of drawings of people with a focus on the figures of men in groups.
"The project is essentially about group dynamics and group representation," she said. "I'm very interested in how people?especially groups of men?pose for photos, how they touch or don't, and more formally, the shapes created by groups, and the shapes created by the negative space between bodies."
"The large-scale drawings push these interests further by combining different types like historical figures and frat boys into one group portrait, that hopefully prompts questions about the significance of their grouping," Dunham added.
Ear is showing a series of portraits done via pinhole camera, a medium with an innate imperfection that she simultaneously laments and celebrates.
Using the replication of silk-screened images alongside an array of clothing tags, Hourihan explores the repetition of everyday objects.
"I am interested in how these objects function removed from their usual context," she said. "In general, however, I'd like my installation to allow viewers [to] build connections between what they see for themselves."
Hourihan said that she paid special attention to responding to the space in which her installation was built.
"Each piece or segment of the installation is in a different place for a different reason," she said.
McDonald took on a similar goal. "I guess my aim over the year has been to pick one idea or object and try to explore it in new ways, over and over again."
Focusing on two images?old chairs and Red Bull cans?McDonald used oil sticks to produce a collection of images with pointed variations in color, scale, and marking.
The objective of his work, he said, was "that viewers walk by and that something catches their eye, which brings them in closer. Once they come closer, I hope that they discover something else, and then something else."
Most of all, he said, "I hope people enjoy what they see."
As for motivation, Dunham said, "We take the business of creativity really seriously because it's seriously awesome."
The show will remain in the VAC until May 17.