"The Exhibit" Displays Art as Serious, Yet Playful

Laughter in the Art Department is hard to come by. Maybe it takes four years in the department to finally realize that blurting out that one's project is both "playful" and "thought-provoking" should not be seen as an artistic faux-pas. With their tongue-in-cheek installation, "The Exhibit," seniors Sonya Sheats and Dan Schmeichler have reinstituted the playground atmosphere into the normally stale Fisher Hall.

Walking into Fisher Hall, there are many brilliantly colored panels and paintings that capture the eye from the outset. Layering the white walls are paintings of typical suburban houses, outlined in black paint and standing stoically on the thin paper canvas. Yet the viewer's eye cannot turn away yet.

Splashed on top of the houses are explosions of hues reminescent of a Crayola box: mango, sea green, red-violet. The houses are not equally visible; sometimes the paint is layered on so thick it is hard to see the house, while in other places Sheats and Schmeichler have allowed the house to be the focal point.

Schmeichler said, "We came up with the idea of having abstract images and we wanted the houses to be Ohio houses-houses that you would find surrounding a playground." Both artists saw the houses as demonstrative of the playful mentality they were aiming for with "The Exhibit." Though the houses attempt to capture the typical Ohio townscape, the combination of the vibrant, surreal colors and the child-like hand in which the houses were drawn affords the piece an almost surreal aura.

Next to one of these multi-hued panoramas lies an assortment of narrow wooden slats, covered with various patterns, scrawlings, collages and assorted photographs. Many of these slats have hooks attached to them which hold smaller cubes. These cubes, in turn, are covered with various patterns, though some of them have patterns similar to the slats.

Coupled with the pleasing patterns and designs, the functional hooks allow the viewer to move the cubes, to interact with the art. Sheats said, "In most art pieces, there's never a chance to touch anything. We didn't want to put up a sign telling people they were allowed to play with things, because if it's a game it shouldn't be required. It should be an instinct and people should go with it."

In the middle of the room are hefty wooden cubes, stacked four or five high like the centerpiece of the Fisher Hall Jungle Gym. The large cubes, as interactive as their smaller companions, serve as one way of integrating the other components of "The Exhibit." Attached to these large cubes are long lengths of rope with smaller cubes at the tail end. Like the cubes attached to the numerous wooden slats, these cubes can be rearranged and moved to different places throughout the installation. Schmeichler said, "One of the ideas that we went with was the idea of movement and the passage of time. We've heard that the space reminds people of a new experience; for some it reminds them of a playground."

The notion of the new experience is mimicked in another part of "The Exhibit." On one of the far walls is a control panel with headphones and two video monitors, both sunk so that the viewer has stare down at the screens in order to watch them. Listening to the recording, and watching the monitors presents the viewer with a warped view of reality. One of the monitors flashes white words onto a blue screen. The other shows a conversation between two men. When both monitors are viewed simultaneously, even though the recording is garbled and the words on the other screen do not line up with either man's mouth, one comes away with a general understanding of the conversation.

On the surface the conversation appears to be a typical post-modern existential drama: one man says "We cannot connect" while the words "I don't know" repeat, covering an the entire screen. As one listens to the entire conversation-the repeated pauses and distortion make this necessary-the viewer realizes that a subtle optimism lies underneath this. There is the sense that both men will overcome their obstacles, ignore their distractions and continue forward.

Installations as poignant and exuberant as "The Exhibit" should not be all-together that uncommon at Oberlin. Though Sheats and Schmeichler started out with the idea of a project that could convey "playfullness...something the audience could interact with," the installation at Fisher Hall is one that reflects their thoughtful and philosophical natures as well.

There will be a closing reception from 7-9:30 p.m. in Fisher Hall.