For two Bowdoin students, when it comes to making art, it's all about the process.
Eleanor West '10 and Tommy Wilcox '09, McKee Summer 2008 Photography Grant recipients, had their projects take unexpected turns as they worked on them this summer. Their projects are being displayed in the fishbowl gallery at the Visual Arts Center consecutively. West's show will be taken down today while Wilcox's show will go up next week. Both will speak about their experiences on Monday night at the VAC.
The McKee Grant gave $1000 to West and Wilcox for their proposals. West worked with Polaroids in triptychs and diptychs.
"I like the matching up of the square of the Polaroid with the rectangular panoramic view of the triptych. It breaks up the panoramic view," West explained. "In some cases, even objects in the photos are split. The format allows each Polaroid to stand alone and also be enhanced by the triptych."
"Polaroids are nostalgic," West said of her choice of medium. "They are also being discontinued, so this seemed the opportune moment to work with them. As of right now there are no more on the market, so I bought up a bunch with the grant." She has 29 triptychs and two diptychs on display in the VAC fishbowl.
West originally proposed a concentration on landscapes, cityscapes, and suburban-scapes, but ultimately moved in a different direction.
"The exteriors look postcard-y, and while I still like them, they're not hanging up. So I scrapped the exteriors in favor of the interiors," she said. "Once I narrowed it down to the interiors, it was much more cohesive in the final stages."
West endeavored to "give a value to the devalued."
"I wanted to make people look twice at the overlooked, the mundane," she said.
West focused on geometry and places that look untouched for subject matter.
"I gravitated towards that which you don't spend much time in. There is a museum or hotel feel, places you don't spend much time in and that seem to have been the same way forever," explains Eleanor, "Without any context, you can get this feel."
West executed the hanging in a formal portraiture style.
"I paid attention to setting up photos within formal restrictions. I didn't want them to look like a scrapbook as Polaroids are often used for. I tried to use them in a more formal set-up keeping in mind how an observer would see them," West said.
While West photographed objects and places, Wilcox's project is a portrait survey of Brunswick's "most recognizable." He sought to answer questions about what makes people recognizable and what is recognizable to most people. So that he would remain unbiased throughout the project, Wilcox only picked his first subject, Bob Morrell of Morrell Lounge and Morrell Gym. Morrell picked the next, and so on. This allowed the project to go in its own direction.
Wilcox's project plays off the profusion of pictures available on the Internet. Part of his proposal explained that he was not fighting this profusion, but creating a foil for it "to return to a time when having a photo taken was a big deal and only famous people were in photographs."
Wilcox's initial vision for his project changed throughout its execution.
"It went to the same place, but not in the same way. The idea was circuitous. I wasn't at all upset that it didn't get there sooner. It wasn't my project; I was just facilitating it," Wilcox said.
"I think that what makes you famous is when people that you don't know, know of you," Wilcox said. "I've always been interested in what makes people celebrities, the things that make someone memorable or recognizable. I originally was calling these recognizable local men and women 'celebrities,' which people found confusing. It's a redefining of 'celebrity'."
Wilcox wanted a larger-than-life feel for these faces and worked with a four-by-five-foot negative to print four-by-five photographs.
"These are the largest I've ever printed," Wilcox said. "It's almost like having another person in the house. It's pretty intimidating."
"I wanted to foster a campus and town connection," Wilcox said about his motivation for doing this project. The volunteer Brunswick celebrities were between the ages of 45 and 85 and from various income levels. Wilcox spent about 10 minutes with each person, taking four photos and paring those to two.
"In terms of getting to know the people, really all I have is a face. But that's representative of how a lot of other Brunswick residents view them: just a face," Wilcox said.
Wilcox and West will speak about their art at 7 p.m. on Monday, September 29, in the Beam classroom of the VAC.