UAB students use performance, interactivity and alternative materials to create art for one-night-only exhibition Aug. 5

Sculptural objects, masks, puppets, performances and art installations created by Department of Art and Art History students will be shown in a one-night-only exhibition.

holloway 2Sculptural objects, masks, puppets, performances and art installations will be shown in a one-night-only exhibition Wednesday, August 5, presented by the University of Alabama at BirminghamCollege of Arts and SciencesDepartment of Art and Art History.

Two one-night-only exhibitions will be presented from 6-8 p.m. Students in Assistant Professor of Sculpture Stacey Holloway’s summer interdisciplinary Interlude: Space & Body course engaged in projects that consider the role of performance and interactivity within contemporary art making. Works by each student can be seen in the exhibition in the Department of Art and Art History Project Space, on the first floor of the Humanities Building, 900 13th St. South.  

“In this course, students focused on three main projects: relationships between audience and sculptural objects; creating narratives through objects and performance; and puppetry and set design,” Holloway said. After researching contemporary artists who use their own bodies in interactive and performance art practice, such as Janine Antoni, Joseph Beuys, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Basil Twist and Tomás Saraceno, the students experimented with 3-D sketches, audience interaction and performance while working with nontraditional materials. 

“Through the investigation of mixed media, including but not limited to drawing, sculpture, photography, video and installation, students explored the possibilities that occur when the body, space and the art object merge,” Holloway said. 

The students are Tori Absher, Corey Bright, Hannah Hensley, Keila Kirkwood, Bryce Martinez, Jenifer Moore, Lisa Nguyen, Jennifer Rice, Caelum Soverow, Adam Sterrett, Annie Strong and Kylee Williams.

Also presented Aug. 6 from 6-8 p.m., students from Adjunct Professor Lane Cooper’s summer figure drawing course will open “The Eccentric Nine” in the UAB Painting Studio, located on the third floor of the Humanities Building. Students who will have works featured are Amanda Halbrooks, Marlena Roberts, Augusta McKewen, Ashlee Boren, Ellory Nichols, Jack Vest, Ricardo Munoz, Corey Bright, and Chris Golson.

The Department of Art and Art History’s Project Space is an adaptive space that cultivates and supports meaningful creative investigation, interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship by providing an alternative platform for students, faculty and community to engage teaching, research, public service and visual art practices.

“Throughout the summer, students were introduced to formal figurative drawing and challenged to consider the figure in contemporary art practice,” says Cooper, “while the second half of the semester involved working with ideas, themes, texts and practical concerns of figurative themes.”

The Department of Art and Art History’s Project Space is an adaptive space that cultivates and supports meaningful creative investigation, interdisciplinary collaboration, innovation and entrepreneurship by providing an alternative platform for UAB Department of Art and Art History students, faculty and community to engage teaching, research, public service and visual art practices.

For more information, contact Assistant Professor of Sculpture Stacey Holloway at shollow@uab.edu.