"Maze" by Bryce Martinez. (Photo by Ian Keel).Surabhi Rao - Staff Writersurrao@uab.edu
UAB’s Art Department is taking the passion in students and turning it into a form of expression that the entire community is eager to be a part of. Project Space is an adaptive space on the first floor of the Humanities Building that provides a place for student art exhibits and other activities. The MOLTEN Art Exhibit occurred on Tuesday, Jan. 12, and many of UAB’s very own students had the opportunity to display their artwork from ARS321 and ARS521. Influential artists in the community are taking note of what is happening on our campus, as the Contemporary curator from the Birmingham Museum of Art was in attendance.
MOLTEN, aptly named after its focus on metal works, was a one night show where students The exhibit featured various forms of art, including performance, stop-motion animation, an interactive puzzle and still pieces. According to the Assistant Professor of Sculpture Stacey Holloway, the students come to this upper level class with their own ideas, and she provides mediums of inspiration to guide their thoughts into action.
“I always tell my students not to limit themselves to art on a pedestal. As an educator, I feel it is important to not only introduce a broad range of hands-on skills to the students, but to also encourage them to seek out collaboration within their communities. The students also participated in an aluminum pour on UAB campus in the sculpture facilities. Having just revived the metal casting program in the Department of Art & Art History, we hope to encourage the students to safely utilize this ancient process as a way to inform their contemporary ideas on community-based and individual artwork."
According to one of the fourth year art students that had pieces on display, Jacob Phillips, “presenting what we have is essential to our lives. UAB’s Art program is a blessing.” Another fourth year student, Mikala Buwalda, commented that “UAB is able to offer such a unique course and learning environment when many other schools don’t have the resources to do so.”
In the upper level sculpture classes, one of the projects that the students completed was casting a lost-wax pattern in iron on the historical site, Sloss Furnace National Historic Landmark. Sloss's Metal Arts' staff, lead by their Senior Artists in Residence Marshall Christie and John Stewart Jackson, directed the students in a workshop and iron pour that gave the students an extensive knowledge and confidence in the casting.
Visual Media and Outreach Coordinator Jared Ragland explained the significance of having Project Space at UAB. “It is an experimental space for students to share with their university and community. Its success can be seen in the close knit community that has formed, as students get to show their work in a gallery space and engage with professionals. Between our exhibitions here and others at the Art Club Meetings, it has become a space that students take ownership of.”
Next week, “Forty-Nine Drawings” by renowned artist Ty Smith comes to the Project Space. 49 graphite drawings that he has created over the past year and a half will be on campus.
