Grad students provide new twist at Zirkle House

Sarah Rababy / contributing photographer Graduate student Dave Bascom's work is displayed this week, along with six other graduate students. The display will continue through Nov. 30.

Moving from oil paintings of scowling men to photographs of wrestlers is an average occurrence at Zirkle House.

Zirkle House will display the artwork of graduate students in the next two weeks. Artists include Dave Bascom, Cynthia Greene, Sarah Boyts, Ashley Sauder, Robin Teas, Stephanie Williams and Erin Zumwalt. Performance art, which encompassed a person as a walking work of art, was performed by John Haverkamp.

Bascom’s three oil paintings in the Other Gallery and the Madison Gallery are awe-inspiring. Through the generously applied paint on his canvases, a definite, appealing texture emerges. In the Other Gallery, Bascom’s untitled piece shows a man with a scowl of exasperation. Bascom expertly uses what seems like hundreds of colors and details in all of his work. Madison Gallery holds Bascom’s work "Father." The piece demonstrates Bascom’s version of the famous portrait of George Washington with a mosaic style.

Cynthia Greene’s art at Zirkle House focuses on relationships. Her painting, "Decisions," shows a girl balancing and comparing two pears. Greene said this painting represents her spiritual side. She makes choices in the art based on whether they will bring her closer to or further from God, Greene said.

Another of Greene’s pieces, "My Heart Is In the Oven," overflows with relationship symbolism.
"This one is more about reflecting on relationships, and it gives an indication on how relationships can change," Greene said.

The painting shows a heart full of nails resting inside an oven. The oven walls are covered with images of a couple. The painting has an intentional surreal style.

"The wacky perspective is to draw people in, to then realize the seriousness of the work," Greene said.
Also, the New Image Gallery opened Monday night with professional artist Geoffrey Delanoy’s photography exhibit, "Spectacle of Excess."

Delanoy’s exhibit focuses on wrestling. "Wrestling is the cultural arena in which we can view ourselves," Delanoy said. "Traditional binaries such as good vs. evil, masculine vs. feminine and real vs. fake give way to the displacement of real issues into the ring."

Delanoy digitized his photos to remove all shading: what remains only is the stark contrast of black and white. By increasing the contrast to such an extreme, much of the details of the photographs are lost. This effect breaks the wrestlers into their most basic shapes, allowing the viewer to mentally put in the pieces that are missing.

Displaying his photographs in such an unusual way also demonstrates how we as a culture view wrestling, Delanoy said. "The more theatrical the spectacle becomes, the more it engages us," he said.

The graduate exhibition will be on display through Nov. 8. "Spectacle of Excess" will be on display through Nov. 30.