“Text and Image,” a display of artwork and creative writing, went up in the Clarence Ward Art Library last Monday in celebration of Ward’s 109th birthday.
Artwork from students in the college and local high schools was mounted on walls and display cases throughout the library. Using mediums from cloth-bound books to glass blocks, the exhibit combines a broad array of styles. The display will continue until Commencement.
This is the fourth annual birthday celebration for Ward. The noted Oberlin architect and artist designed the President’s House, the 1937 addition to the art museum, as well as other churches and buildings in town. He was hired at the College in 1916 and founded the art museum a year later.
The Art Department did not celebrate Ward’s birthday for over 50 years after his death. But while he was a professor here, his doting secretary threw him a party every year, said librarian Paula Baymiller.
In an informal tour of the artwork last Monday, several of the artists read poetry and described the inspiration for their pieces.
Amherst Steele High School Student Rachel Washburn read a poem modeled off of the imagery in Salvador Dali’s 1958 work “Meditative Rose.” The imagery in the poem was vivid, and though the work had no visual display, the descriptions were cutting and carefully crafted.
Junior Rachel Schraffan delved into her cloth and print display that combines journal entries from an early 20th century American with baby dresses from the time. Text is printed with nature images and placed on top of the worn cloth. The displayed entries are quite anecdotal, and written in a flowing but simple voice.
The next two exhibits were both bound books. The first, by sophomore Mollie Hosmer-Dillard, was titled Snakes and used a sparse text that contrasted different snake-like shapes slithering between pages.
The second book, titled The Greatest Book Ever Written, by senior Shelley Goldman, used maps and images to contrast a telling of the Old Testament of the Bible with the history of the Israeli-Palestinean conflict.
“This came about as an Israeli fighting for a Palestinian state,” she said. The art was political, artistic, historical, and religious all at the same time.
Senior Claire Nereim used glass blocks and other materials to build a model house. She said the artwork suited her interests as an Art and Environmental Studies double major.
Other works included the risqué collage titled “Risky Business,” by sophomore Laura Cline.
Another piece, titled “Blue Hour,” by sophomore Cori Winrock, used a text printed on a blue lens suspended a few inches away from the backdrop, which also had the same poem printed on it. By looking at the work, one saw a double image, with the two texts intermingling and yet free of one another.